

ACTION OF ACIDS ON T?E RED CORPUSCLES. 399 



elliptical corpuscles and in the nucleated round corpuscles of 

 the embryoes of Mammals. If the action of the reagent pene- 

 trating into the blood be rendered less energetic, the flattening 

 still often occurs ; and when all the rest of the corpuscle has 

 quietly dissolved, the nucleus remains behind, enormously en- 

 larged, and usually of a somewhat angular form, though homo- 

 geneous in its substance. This phenomenon, however, may be 

 more frequently observed after the application of the alkaline 

 earths, than after that of the pure alkalies. In regard to lime 

 water, it deserves especial mention that, in many instances, 

 after the coloured spheroids have been produced, and the cor- 

 puscles are about to flatten, the previously enlarged nucleus 

 contained in the interior of the spheroid contracts suddenly 

 to a strongly refracting body. The corpuscle then becomes 

 pale, and this centrally situated body remains surrounded by a 

 clear colourless area. This peculiar appearance occurs usually 

 only at the commencement of the action of lime water. 



e. Acids* readily occasion precipitates in the blood cor- 

 puscles. The precipitate either appears distributed through a 

 clear transparent substance, surrounded by the circular or ellip- 

 tical contour line of the corpuscle, which frequently expands 

 suddenly with a jerk (acetic acid);*f- and coincidently the 

 nucleus, which has become more highly refractile, and fre- 

 quently somewhat angular or inflated, and darkly granular, 

 comes more distinctly into view (acetic acid, diluted tincture 

 of iodine), whilst it appears distinct from the colourless 

 substance of the blood corpuscles, in consequence of being 

 strongly tinted with hseniatin; or the precipitate occurs in 

 the thoroughly granular or cloudy corpuscle, which appears as 

 if hardened and usually somewhat shortened in its long dia- 

 meter. When the acids act in this manner, the nucleus fre- 

 quently appears to be not very sharply defined, but frequently 

 shrivelled and surrounded by an empty space, as though lying 

 in a cavity of the substance of the blood corpuscles (chromic 

 acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, picric acid, tannic acid, and 

 concentrated tincture of iodine). When the acids are much 



* Kneuttinger, loc. cit., p. 28. 

 f Idem. 



