ACTION OF VAPOURS ON THE RED CORPUSCLES. 405 



bonic acid, but can again be produced on the accession of air ; 

 the experiment, however, as Strieker has remarked, cannot be 

 very frequently repeated, as the thorn-apple form ultimately 

 remains persistent. A. Schmidt" showed that ozone gave a 

 carmine tint to the blood by destruction of the blood corpuscles. 



b. Ether,-f- chloroform, { bisulphide of carbon, and alcohol, || 

 conducted in the form of vapour over the blood, also render 

 it of a carmine colour. If the appearances exhibited by the 

 blood corpuscles are closely observed, it may be seen that in 

 the circular disks the border becomes thickened,1F and in place 

 of the central depression a navel-like fossa appears. The funnel 

 so formed becomes narrower and closes, and the corpuscles now 

 appear as a coloured spheroid. Chloride of methyl vapour acts 

 in a similar manner.** The above-mentioned vapours, but not 

 the last, finally render the corpuscles colourless. 



Whe'n ether and chloroform vapours act on the blood of the 

 Amphibia, they render -the corpuscles, in the first instance, 

 spotty, though the colour subsequently becomes equably diffused, 

 whilst the blood corpuscles appear to be somewhat diminished 

 in size. On the other hand, the thickness of the border is 

 increased, so that the nucleus lies in a depression. A few only 

 of the blood corpuscles become spherical. The majority, when 

 in the condition of a disc with thickened borders, lose their 

 colour, and the nuclei then become more sharply denned. The 

 blood corpuscles of the Amphibia also behave themselves simi- 

 larly when air impregnated with ether or chloroform vapour 

 is persistently transmitted over the preparation, and the phe- 



* Virchow's Archiv, Band xxix., p. 14. 



f V. Wittich, Journal fur praktische Chemie, Band Ixi., p. 11; and 

 Konigsberger Medic. Jahrbilcher, Band iii., p. 332. L. Hermann, Reichert 

 and Du Bois' Archiv, 1866, p. 27. 



\ Chaumont, Monthly Journal of Medicine. Edinburgh, 1851, p. 470. 

 B 6 ttcher, Virchow's Archiv, Band xxxii., p. 126; Band xxxvi., p. 342. 

 Kneuttinger, loc. cit., p. 48. A. Schmidt and Schweigger-Seidel, Berichtc 

 der Konig. Sachs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, 1867, p. 190. 



Hermann, loc. cit. 



|| Hermann, loc. cit. Kneuttinger, loc, cit., p. 44. 



5[ Hermann, loc. cit., p. 31. A. Schmidt and Schweigger- Seidel, loc. 

 cit., p. 196. 



** Hermann, loc. cit. 



