76 BLOOD 



The cytoplasm of these cells is considerable in amount and 

 presents an extremely delicate reticulum, at the intersections of 

 whose meshes are the minute neutrophile granules, which give the 

 cell its finely granular appearance as seen in the freshly prepared 

 specimen. The characteristic finely granular protoplasm and the 

 polymorphous nucleus are the distinguishing peculiarities of these 

 cells, the so-called "polynuclear neutrophile leucocytes." 



P. Ehrlich in a series of communications announced that by coloring the 

 leucocytes with various stains he was able to distinguish by their reaction, sev- 

 eral types of granules. These he called (a) oxyphile or acidophile, which were 

 deeply stained by eosin, acid fuchsin, etc. ; ()8) amphophile, which were stained 

 both by eosin, and by dahlia and like dyes ; (7) basophile, which were stained 

 deeply by dahlia, thionin, etc.; (5) certain cells which neither after stain- 

 ing with eosin, etc., nor with dahlia, etc., could be made to show any granules 

 other than the nodes of the cytoreticulum ; (e) neutrophile, which can be 

 stained only by a due admixture of acid and basic dyes, as of fuchsin and 

 methylen blue, or the so-called " triacid mixture " of Ehrlich. 



The demonstration of these characteristics presupposed a division of dyes 

 into three primary classes : 



1. Acid e. g., eosin, orange-G, acid fuchsin, aurantia, erythrosin. 



2. Basic e. g., methylen blue, dahlia, thionin, hematein. 



3. Neutral which are only formed by the interreaction of examples of 

 each of the two preceding classes ; the neutral dye is supposed to arise de novo 

 in such mixtures, as a result of 'chemical reaction. 



The application of such a classification of stains to other tissues than the 

 blood has, however, been found to present considerable difficulties. 



Centrosomes and mitotic figures have been repeatedly demon- 

 strated in the polynuclear neutrophiles of the lower vertebrates 

 and in those of human blood by Fleming,* 

 Gulland,f and others. The meshes of their 

 cytoplasmic reticulum exclusive of the neu- 

 trophile granules present a very slightly aci- 

 dophile character, so that by overstaining in 

 eosin, erythrosin, etc., the cytoplasm of these 

 FIG 81 LEUCOCYTES ce ^ s "takes on a distinctly red tint. That this 

 IN PROCESS OF reaction is not due to the presence of hemo- 

 MTOSIS - globin is evidenced by the fact -that red blood 



From the red mar- n conta j ne a j n t h e same specimen will in- 

 row of a guinea-pig. * 



(After Demarbaix.) variably stain much more deeply with the acid 



dye than any of the leucocytes. 



The coarsely granular leucocytes of the blood eosinophiles 

 possess a nucleus which presents the same polymorphous form 



* Arch. f. mik. Anat., 1891. t <* of Physiol., 1896. 



