DR. MARTIN BARRY ON FIBRE. 113 



colouring matter also. The evolution of red colouring matter forms one of the most 

 remarkable changes in the coagulation of the blood (par. 93). 



104. The prodigious rapidity with which filaments form during the coagulation of 

 the blood, will be obvious from the short space of time occupied by this process ; of 

 which the production of these filaments seems to constitute the leading part. 



105. The "notched or granulated fibres" observed by Professor MAYER in the 

 blood-f-, were possibly my flat, grooved, and compound filaments, a particular de- 

 scription of which has been given in the above memoir ; but if so, there is this import- 

 ant difference between the opinion of Professor MAYER and my observations as to 

 their mode of origin. He regards them as representing " free fibrin in the blood," 

 and, from having seen more of them in inflammation, as perhaps the " mechanical 

 consequence of an increased pressure of the blood, by the more rapid and forcible 

 systole of the heart and arteries." He even thinks it possible to produce the same 

 appearances " by drawing the plasma of the chyle into a thread." The filaments I 

 have described are produced in neither of these ways ; but, as we have seen, have 

 their origin in corpuscles of the blood. 



106. On former occasions J, I have mentioned these corpuscles as sometimes ex- 

 hibiting changes in their form. When last referring to this phenomenon, I expressed 

 my conviction that it arose from an inherent contractile power ; an idea which re- 

 peated observation has confirmed, and which has been strengthened by the very 

 decided opinion of several gentlemen to whom I have shown the phenomenon in 

 question. As I had noticed such an inherent contractile property in blood-corpuscles, 

 it was very interesting to me to meet with moving filaments in some blood from the 

 heart, that had stood for a day or two after death . And I have since had the fur- 

 ther satisfaction to find that the fibres just referred to as seen by Professor MAYER 

 were observed by him in the Lamprey to present free and spontaneous motions. 



107. We are indebted to W. ADDISON|| for the discovery of an immense number of 

 "colourless globules," sometimes observable in the clear colourless fluid at the top of 

 coagulating blood. I have had the opportunity of examining blood presenting, in its 

 coagulation, a top-stratum of clear, nearly colourless fluid ; and what I regarded as 

 the "globules" in question. In some blood taken in Pleuritis, I found the number 

 of such " globules " prodigious. They obviously contained discs, the outer of which 

 disappeared on the addition of acetic acid (of the strength of distilled vinegar) : and 

 I was not a little interested on finding the residual contents to present the same ap- 



t FRORIEP'S Notizen, No. 377, April 1841, p. 42. 



: Philosophical Transactions, 1840, Part II. p. 598; 1841, Part II. p. 227. 



The appearance of some of the blood-corpuscles when performing the movements in question, is such as to 

 suggest the idea of a filament being contained within them. 



|| " On colourless globules in the huffy coat of the Blood," Lond. Med. Gaz., 1840, vol. xxvii. 



MDCCCXL1I. Q 



