ORSERVATIONS ON THE BLOOD DISCS. 67 



would take on a molecular movement. This fact must also have been 

 noticed by Majendie, for in his Lectures on the Blood, published in the 

 Lancet for 1838-39, he states, " that when blood was kept for 24 or 36 

 hours, the discs became puckered up, and besides this, a number of Vi- 

 briones or Monades appeared at the same time in the serum, which devour 

 the red globules." Others have made mention of the corrugated discs, 

 and of the little granules ; but all have singularly failed in ascertaining 

 their nature or their source ; they have been described by authors 

 under the names of lymph, chyle, and fibrin globules. Besides these 

 and the red discs, other bodies are seen in the blood, which are much 

 larger than the ordinary discs, and have been described by some ob- 

 servers as pus globules ; whether so or not, they give off granules from 

 their interior, but without becoming first spinous, like the red discs. 

 The changes described have been found to take place more rapidly in 

 the blood of some individuals than in that of others, and in the same 

 individual at different times, the best subjects being those of an inflam- 

 matory habit of body. There is one essential thing to be borne in 

 mind, which is, that the blood must not have been suffered to coagulate 

 before examination ; when this has commenced, and the discs have be- 

 come aggregated together like piles of money, the changes before des- 

 cribed will not take place. From the repeated observations of the author 

 he arrives at the following conclusions : That each red particle of 

 human blood is a flattened circular disc, consisting of an outer mem- 

 brane or envelope, with a thick gelatiniform fluid in its interior, which, 

 under certain circumstances hereafter to be noticed, is capable of be- 

 coming granular, and of escaping from the envelope in the form of 

 small globules, the general number being about six or seven for each 

 disc : also, that the discs may present either a bi-convex or bi-concave 

 figure, of which the latter form is by far the most numerous, which is 

 in a great measure dependant upon the quantity of the gelatiniform 

 fluid which they contain in their interior. The existence of a nucleus, 

 as described by Hewson, Miiller, and other observers, he has entirely 

 failed in making out. At present he declines stating what he has ascer- 

 tained these little granules (so often spoken of ) to be ; these, together 

 with the important part they play in some of the effects of inflamma- 

 tion, as well as some other properties of the blood, will form the subject 

 of another paper, which he hopes shortly to lay before the Society. 



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