114 DR. MARTIN BARRY ON FIBRE. 



pearances as some of those figured in one of my former communications to the Society, 

 as resulting from the addition of this reagent to corpuscles of the blood-f~. It imme- 

 diately became a question with me, whether some of the appearances so delineated 

 were not those of " colourless globules ;" a few of which, it is known, are seen floating 

 along with the red discs. I therefore attentively examined blood-corpuscles in very 

 large number, without having added any chemical reagent: and the result is, that I 

 believe the colourless globules, floating with the red blood-discs, to be no other than 

 these discs in an altered state;};. The colourless globules appear to represent dif- 

 ferent stages in the formation of parent cells, which in a former memoir I showed to 

 have their origin in red blood-discs. 



108. Acetic acid, then, produced such a change in the colourless globules at the 

 top of the coagulating blood just mentioned, that I believe them to have been of the 

 same kind as certain corpuscles usually floating in the blood : corpuscles paler than 

 the rest, and termed " colourless globules." 



109. Are any of the colourless globules in the top-stratum of coagulating blood 

 concerned in producing the buffy coat? ADDISON believes that they "coalesce" to 

 form it. "In a few minutes," says he, "coagulation commenced in streaks and 

 films, all of which were evidently composed by the aggregation of the globules." The 

 optical instrument used by ADDISON was merely a CODDINGTON lens : but the employ- 

 ment of a compound microscope, with very high magnifying powers, has not enabled 

 me to detect any other substance than the globules he pointed out, with the contain- 

 ing fluid, as giving origin to the buffy coat. The fact is, that the globules I met 

 with were no other than parent cells, more or less advanced in producing young 

 blood-discs. In the top-stratum I met with a number of these young discs, dis- 

 charged from their cells, very minute and delicate, and scarcely tinged with red. 

 When the top-stratum had coagulated, these cells were no longer found: but in their 

 stead I saw fibres, such as those in tissues, known to have their origin in cells: not 

 in the cell-membranes, which I find to be of very subordinate importance (par. 90), 

 but in the discs contained within the cells. These fibres were certainly not produced 

 by manipulation^. Among the fibres, nuclei were met with, resembling those in the 

 tissues, which, according to my observations, are descended by fissiparous genera- 

 tion from the nuclei of the original cells (par. 19). In some parts these nuclei were 



f Which, I should now add, were obtained by punctures of the finger. See Philosophical Transactions, 

 1841, Part II. Plate XVII. fig. 23. 



J The figure just referred to, indeed, represents stages in this transition. See the description of that figure. 

 Thus r\ had ceased to be biconcave, and become globular : but the nucleus was indistinctly seen, from the sur- 

 rounding discs and red colouring matter having been imperfectly dissolved. Most of the objects there delineated 

 represent cells, such as before the addition of acetic acid are filled with discs ; only the last formed of which 

 remain visible after the addition of the acid. 



In a paper of later date than those above referred to, W. ADDISON describes the macerated clot as contain- 

 ing " fibres and filaments, having the toughness, cohesion, and elasticity of organized membrane." Lend. Med. 

 Gaz., March 26, 1841. p. 14. This I fully confirm, from many observations. 



