238 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [October, 



stration he desired to indicate some things which he had observed re- 

 specting the blood which may make necessary a revision of most of 

 the text-books, and which would show what a wide field of investiga- 

 tion remains open to intelligent work in all directions. He sometimes 

 feared that the brilliant progress of bacteriology had diverted the atten- 

 tion of observers from the more useful investigation of histological 

 structure. 



Dr. Wythe said he had found that observations of the blood were of 

 little value unless high powers were employed, say from one to two 

 thousand diameters, and that the more pei'fect are the objectives em- 

 ployed the more satisfactory will be the conclusions. He had used 

 various solutions, as well as no reagent or solution at all, with very 

 similar results; but a 50 per cent, solution of bichromate of potash 

 gave the greatest satisfaction. Under circumstances described he had 

 seen the most varied and complicated structiu'es in the blood, compel- 

 ling the conviction that different corpuscles serve different functions. 

 Variations of size, of shape, and in the manner of activity or of disor- 

 ganization, have been of constant occurrence. vShapes the most bizarre 

 and strange have been often met with, so different from the conventional 

 figures of the books as to suggest the question whether the makers of 

 text-books had ever seen blood under the microscope of modern times. 



Endeavoring to classify the various appearances of the corpuscles, 

 he noted : First, the white corpuscles, which are generally spherical 

 or ovoid masses, although often irregular in shape, having amoeboid or 

 changing forms, and composed of white convoluted fibres, which in 

 lower powers or inferior microscopes seem granular. Second, flat 

 plaques, or discs, of a white color, either round or irregular in shape. 

 One perfectly round one had indications of radiating fibres at the edge 

 of the disc ; others were irregular, and dumb-bell shaped. Third, the 

 red corpuscles, which are at first flat discs, either round or irregular, 

 but mostly round. They vary in size, some being double the size of 

 others. In a short time they become somewhat globular or irregular 

 in form, losing their disc-like appearance, and projections like knobs 

 appear in irregular numbers all over their surface. Sometimes in 

 corpuscles which remain discoid these knobs or protrusions appear 

 all round the edge. It is as if they were composed of two semi-fluid 

 substances, like gum and glycerine, which had a tendency to separate 

 from each other. The semi-fluid droplets have vibratile and amoeboid 

 motions, and are often seen in torula-like masses, budding and showing 

 signs of excessive vitality or irritability. Many of the corpuscles, 

 with their extruded globules, have a wheel-like or axial vibration from 

 side to side. The fourth classification includes microzymes, or small 

 particles of various sizes and shapes, in constant motion. Many of 

 these are so like micrococci as scarcely to be distinguished from them. 



The protruded masses from the I'ed corpuscles become like micro- 

 cocci with varied motions. 



The importance of these observations will be obvious to students of 

 pathology as well as of jurisprudence, and may indicate that the germ 

 theory of Dr. Beale, which is not superseded by the discovery of specific 

 bacteria, is yet destined to play an important part in practical medi- 

 cine. 



After the conclusion of this interesting paper discussions followed, in 



