34 ORGANISED FLUIDS, 



which corresponds with the blood disc of the mammiferous 

 vertebrata, viz. the outer or capsular portion of it, the 

 nucleus which alone exists in the blood corpuscles of birds, 

 fishes, and reptiles, being entirely destitute of colouring 

 matter. 



The colour of the blood, it has long been believed, is inti- 

 mately connected with the presence of iron in the blood cor- 

 puscles : from the fact, however, that iron exists in the chyle*, 

 and in the colourless blood of certain animals f , it is clear 



tissue of the body." These filaments Dr. Barry conceives finally to con- 

 stitute " fibre," whenever this elementary structure is encountered. 



These multiplied and extraordinary observations of Dr. Barry, it is 

 now necessary to observe, remain unconfirmed in all the most essential 

 particulars up to the present time. Shortly after their promulgation, Dr. 

 Griffiths \ and Mr. Wharton Jones 2 , objected to the statement of Dr. 

 Barry, that there exists in the blood corpuscle a primordial fibre, observ- 

 ing that the appearances relied upon were due to decomposition. In 

 connection with the subject of fibre in the blood globules, the analogy 

 referred to by Dr. Will shire 3 , between a dark line observed in the starch 

 vesicle, and Dr. Barry's alleged fibre, may be noticed as well as the 

 affirmations of Dr. Carpenter 4 , that Dr. Barry had shown him, amongst 

 corpuscles of the blood of the newt, preserved in its own serum, many of 

 a flask-like figure, and which might be compared to a pair of bellows, and 

 the projecting portion of which appeared to Dr. Carpenter to be a filament 

 having a much higher refracting power than the general substance of the 

 corpuscle. Dr. Barry also showed Dr. Carpenter, in blood preserved in 

 corrosive sublimate, a corpuscle which was evidently destitute of the 

 ordinary nucleus, and which contained what appeared to be a filament, 

 presenting transverse oblique markings which resembled those of the 

 fibrillse of a muscle. The observations of Dr. Barry, and the confirm- 

 atory statements of Dr. Carpenter, will at least be possessed of historical 

 interest, if any real and intrinsic importance be denied to them. The 

 views of Dr. Barry are given at length in the Philosophical Transactions 

 for 18401843. 



* See article " Lymphatic System, " by Mr. Lane, Encyclopaedia of 

 Anatomy and Physiology, April, 1841. 



f " The Blood Corpuscle considered in its different Phases of Dcvelope- 

 ment in the Animal Series, by J. W. Jones, F.R.S. Transactions of the 

 Royal Society, Part II. for 1846. 



1 Annals of Natural History. February, 1843. 



2 Transactions of the Royal Society, December, 1842. 



3 Annals of Natural History, 1843. 



4 Annals of Natural History, 1842. 



