COLOURLESS CORPUSCLES OF THE BLOOD. 415 



As long as they are in active movement they are capable of 

 absorbing small particles of colouring matter, as of carmine 

 and anilin blue, and also milk globules, into the interior of 

 their bodies. In reference to the further peculiarities of these 

 true protoplasmic masses, I must refer to the first chapter of 

 this manual. Besides the white corpuscles of the blood, Max 

 Schultze admits, as constant constituents of human blood, 

 irregularly formed masses of colourless globules, which he 

 regards as fragments of cell substance. 



There is a statement frequently met with in* books, that, 

 under certain circumstances, fat drops are met with in the 

 blood, often in such quantity that the serum acquires a milky 

 appearance, as in sucking animals,* and after the use of olea- 

 ginous food.f Oily matters, which have entered the blood, seem 

 however to disappear with great rapidity. In the remarks 

 made upon Schlemm's observations on kittens, Joh. Miiller { 

 states that he only found milky serum when the animal had 

 shortly before ingested milk. 



Yet another morphological constituent occurs in the so- 

 called elementary corpuscles of Zimmerman. These have 

 been held to be generators of the blood corpuscles. The greater 

 number of them, obtained in the mode adopted by Zimmerman, 

 from blood treated with salt, can be easily recognised as arti- 

 ficial products ; that is to say, as the colourless remains of dis- 

 torted red corpuscles (Hensen). It is not a matter of surprise 

 that similar forms should also be frequently found in freshly 

 prepared blood (Kneuttinger). Lastly, Max Schultze has 

 demonstrated that the smallest elementary corpuscles of Zim- 

 merman agree with his before-mentioned granules. 



As regards the number of the white blood corpuscles, they 

 are much less abundant in normal blood than in the red, and 

 their relative number is subject to much greater variation 



* Schlemm and Joh. Miiller, Froriep's Notizen, Band xxv., 1829, p. 121. 



f Kiihne, Physiolog. Chemie, p. 181. Kolliker, Gewebelehre, 18(37, p. 

 620. 



J Loc. cit. 



Rust's Magazine, Band Ixvi., p. 171 ; Virchow's Archiv, Band xviii., 

 p. 221 ; Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftliche Zoologie, Band xi., p. 344. Hensen, 

 loc. cit., p. 259. Max Schultze, loc. cit., p. 39. Kneuttinger, loc. cit., p. 5. 





