408 THE BLOOD, BY ALEXANDER ROLLETT. 



On the contrary, the escape of the nucleus, the coalescence 

 of the coloured spheroids, the physical character of the colour- 

 less remains after the discharge of the colouring matter, are all 

 opposed to the existence of such an investment. The results 

 of these inquiries are much more in favour of the view main- 

 tained by Rollett,* that a stroma or matrix enters into the 

 structure of the coloured elastic extensible substance of the red 

 blood corpuscles, which exhibits so remarkable a similarity in 

 all animals, and that to this the form and the peculiar physical 

 properties of the corpuscles are due. Hence the conclusion, 

 that, however complicated the chemical constitution of the sub- 

 stance of the blood corpuscles may be, yet, by the action of a 

 series of agents, the colouring matter can be separated from the 

 stroma, without causing the latter to lose its essential characters. 



The phenomena induced in the red blood corpuscles by vari- 

 ous reagents, as urea, chloroform, and ether, and also the pheno- 

 mena described by Max Schultze as resulting from the action 

 of heat, fairly agree with this simple view. No doubt it may 

 be urged that the membrane is highly extensible, and that 

 it is reasonable to suppose that by the action of the above- 

 mentioned agents it would be rapidly destroyed^rendering the 

 phenomena observed consistent with its original presence 

 around the tenacious semi-solid gelatinous contents of the blood 

 corpuscles. But the theory that under these circumstances 

 the membrane is really destroyed can only be based on the 

 proof of its existence. We cannot hold the latter as ascer- 

 tained if we regard the forms which a series of reagents 

 (acids) occasion in the blood corpuscles ; in the latter case we 

 have much more ground for believing in the formation of arti- 

 ficial products, than they who hold the opposite view have 

 reason in the previously adduced cases to admit the destruction 

 of a naturally present membrane. The proof of the pre- 

 existence of a membrane must here again, in the first instance, 

 be furnished. 



A circumstance bearing upon the question of a membrane is 

 met with in the peculiar structures already frequently mentioned 

 as occurring in the blood corpuscles of the Amphibia (fig. 73, 



* Loc. cit., Band xlvi., pp. 73, 94, 95, and 98. 



