118 DR. MARTIN BARRY ON FIBRE. 



124. At the commencement of last year, I presented to the Society a communica- 

 tion, in which certain appearances I had noticed in blood-corpuscles were referred to 

 a process of the same kind as that previously described by myself, as witnessed in 

 the germinal vesicle, that is, in the essential part of the ovum. I concluded, that 

 the corpuscles of the blood are generated by a process of the same kind as that 

 giving origin to those cells which are the immediate successors of the germinal 

 vesicle, or original parent cell. The comparison, however, was not then extended 

 beyond the mode of production of young cells. 



125. My subsequent researches show that we may go farther. The changes taking 

 place in the ovum lead to the formation of a new being. Those effected in the cor- 

 puscle of the blood lead to the formation of a filament, endowed with the property 

 of reproducing itself by division. And what is very remarkable, the position of this 

 filament in the blood-corpuscle bears a striking resemblance to that of the young in 

 the ovum of certain intestinal worms, as remarked by Professor OWEN, on seeing my 

 drawings of the filament in corpuscles of the blood-}-. Is the blood-corpuscle to be 

 regarded as an ovum ? 



126. EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 



PLATE V. 



Fig. 1. Man. Blood-corpuscles, in blood obtained by a puncture of the finger. Each 

 of them has become a filament, having a coil-like form (par. 1). 



Fig. 2. Man. Blood- corpuscles, in blood (obtained by a puncture of the finger) 

 which had stood for some time, between two pieces of glass, in the mi- 

 croscope. Each of them is now a more or less coiled filament. The di- 

 vision of the blood-corpuscle into very minute objects (discs), which may 

 be seen taking place in the microscope, seems to be preparatory to the 

 formation of the filament (par. 25). 



Fig. 3. Man. From the coagulum of venous blood, taken in haemoptysis, a. Fila- 

 ments, for the most part parallel. (3. Blood-corpuscle which has passed 

 into a coiled filament (par. 8). 



Fig. 4. From the same coagulum. a. Filaments ; (3. Rings ; y. Coils, and other ob- 

 jects; all of them altered blood-corpuscles, having the same structure as 

 the filaments a. The whole blood-red. The buffy coat in other blood 

 presented similar filaments, in denser aggregation, and less red (pars. 

 8, 97). 



Fig. 5. Sparrow (Fringilla domestica, LINN.). Sketch of blood-corpuscles, each pre- 

 senting a coiled filament. The figure represents the structure of the fila- 

 ment at a (par. 13). 



t I have already mentioned that the appearance of some of the blood-corpuscles when exhibiting changes in 

 their form, is such as to suggest the idea of a filament being contained within them. 



