RED CORPUSCLES 



The corpuscles of cold-blooded animals, birds, and the camelidse are 

 oval, and with the exception of the camelidae are nucleated. The cor- 

 puscles of the camelidae are biconvex. 



The color of the red corpuscles by transmitted light is pale and 

 faintly yellowish, and is due to hemoglobin, which constitutes about 

 95.5 per cent of their substance (see Plate II, Fig. 2). Their specific 

 gravity is about 1088. In the blood of the horse which coagulates 

 slowly the corpuscles readily gravitate to the bottom of a vessel, 

 leaving a clear plasma above. 



The number of corpuscles in a given volume may be easily calcu- 

 lated by means of an instrument called the hemacytometer. This is an 

 apparatus for counting the cor- 

 puscles in a measured space 

 filled with blood properly diluted 

 and the corpuscles evenly dis- 

 tributed in the mixture. The 

 results of modern observers 

 agree remarkably with those of 

 Vierordt(i852), Walker (1854), 

 and Malassez(i872), the general 

 estimate being about 5,000,000 

 corpuscles in a cubic millimeter 

 (one millimeter = ^V i ncn ) of 

 blood. Various saline solutions 

 'are used in diluting the blood, 

 having a specific gravity of 1020 

 to 1025. The Thoma-Zeiss ap- 



paratUS is the One most Used 



, . , , . , 



m chemical observations ; and 

 this is merely a convenient modification of the method of Vierordt 

 and Walker and Malassez, which it is unnecessary to describe in detail. 

 The proportion of corpuscles is greater in the veins than in the arteries, 

 the blood of the splenic veins presenting the highest number. In 

 women the corpuscles number about 4,500,000 in a cubic millimeter. 

 The number of corpuscles is gradually increased during fifteen or 

 twenty days' sojourn in high altitudes. At an altitude of about 14,500 

 feet (4392 meters) the number per cubic millimeter was 8,000,000 

 (Viault). 



A short time after blood has been drawn from the vessels, the cor- 

 jpuscles usually show a tendency to arrange themselves in rows like 

 (rouleaux of coin. This is due to the exudation of a sticky substance 



together by their flat surfaces. Under 



ig. Human blood-corpuscles in rouleaux, 

 X 840 (Stratford). 



This figure shows fresh corpuscles, most of them 

 arranged in rows. 



Vhich causes them to adhere 



