THE BIOLOGY OF DAILY LIFE. 63 



organism namely, that of its products. These 

 are eliminated by the ordinary channels ; the 

 salts, which are chiefly salts of potash, being 

 excreted by the kidneys, and the coloured mate- 

 rial furnish the pigments of the bile and urine. 

 " The white or colourless corpuscles of the 

 blood, also called leucocytes, are chiefly de- 

 rived from the corpuscles of the lymph, and the 

 cells of the lymphatic glands, which they closely 

 resemble. By escaping through the walls of 

 the blood vessels, they become identical with 

 the wandering cells of tissues and pus-cor- 

 puscles, from which they are indistinguishable 

 except by locality." " BLOOD, morbid con- 

 dition of" (Quain. p. 116). 



Now we ask the reader to continue his medical 

 course of study, and learn what the eminent authority 

 last quoted has to say about these corpuscles. 



Like Hamlet, to continue my playful illusions. I 

 only say "Look here upon this picture and on this, 

 the medical presentment of two corpuscles." We shall 

 find some startling differences, decently veiled under 

 the professional obscurity of medical diction. Further 

 on in the same article we read, under " MOKBID CON- 

 DITIONS OF THE RED CORPUSCLES :" 



" (#.) Polycythaemia. Increase in number 

 of the red corpuscles is never considerable, 

 being generally transitory and within physio- 

 logical limits ; for example, in the newly born, 

 and after meals. It has already been mentioned* 



* The exact words of this mention are " Polyhsemia is believed 

 to be present in plethora, along with relative excess of the solids, 

 and especially of the red corpuscles." 



