VOL. LV.]] PHILOSOPHICAI. TRANSACTIONS. 247 



without. In such globules I could also easily observe the ring to be articulated, 

 the transverse lines at the joints being very distinguishable. The figures of the 

 articulations were various; in some they were roundish, so that the ring ap- 

 peared like a bead necklace; in others cylindrical, and of some length. The 

 number of which the whole was composed, seemed uncertain, varying from 2 

 or 3 to 6 or 7 ; many of the rings were broken, either by some confinement of 

 the talks, or by beating against each other, which I saw them continually 

 doing; and by these accidents the joints of the rings were detached, and 

 wandered about separately in great numbers; and indeed they appeared separable 

 with as much ease as if they had been united by mere contact only. Some of 

 the rings were broken into semicircles, others into greater or less portions, and 

 others again divided into their constituent articulations, which in some places 

 floated about single, and in others formed by their mutual attraction a lateral 

 union, like the pipes of an organ. These separated parts seemed to be hollow 

 and transparent, and, like inflated bladders, would easily yield, and change 

 their figure, stretching or contracting themselves from round to oval and cylin- 

 drical, and vice versa, as any lateral pressure in crowding along with the serum 

 brought a constraint upon them. As they floated at different levels, many of 

 them passed over or under each other without interruption, and the same would 

 happen also to the whole rings and larger portions. I remained therefore, after 

 repeated examinations of the globules in this state, without the least doubt 

 either of their perforation or articulation; for though the articulation was not 

 distinguishable in every globule, it was so in the greater part of them ; and it is 

 natural to imagine that the rest were articulated likewise, though they might 

 not pass at the proper distance for its being distinguished. I omitted to speak 

 of the size of the globules in this observation, nor indeed can I, from so vari- 

 ous an appearance, form any judgment of it, further than to say that they ap- 

 peared in general much augmented beyond their appearance on the 2d of 

 July. 



August 27th, a 3d observation was made with the same instrument of some 

 blood dropped upon a single talk, and viewed as it lay without any cover, so 

 that there could be no compression. It was viewed while the globules were still 

 in motion, with a spherule that magnified the diameter 1920 times ; and in this 

 view the globules appeared so cleariy to be hollow rings, that there was not room 

 for the least suspicion of the reality of the fact from any circumstance. The 

 diameter of the perforation appeared much larger in proportion to the thickness 

 of the circumference, than it had done in the former views. The figure of the 

 rings, where they were free, and in their natural state, was circular; but where 

 they were so crowded together as to compress one another in their passage, they 

 assumed a variety of different figures, though they generally restored themselves 



