PART I.] Corpuscles Imbedded in Flocculi of Cholera Evacuations. 2 1 



Illustration II. : — 



Another case, the third liquid stool, presented a yellow colour, about one-sixth of 

 which was composed of a whitish flocculent sediment, in which the corpuscles were 

 granular when the evacuation was voided, and exhibited amoeboid movements. The 

 sediment presented precisely the same microscopical character as the second stage of 

 the last described ; a semi-membranaceous substance, dotted with irregularly defined 

 cells (Plate XIII, Fig. xliii), very like what is seen in exudations effused in catarrh. 

 On very careful watching they are seen to protrude excessively delicate processes of an 

 amoeboid character (Fig. xliv), just as the white blood-corpuscles do. 



Liquor potassce caused the membranaceous appearance to vanish after a time, 

 reducing the cells to an aggregation of granular or molecular particles. Ether does not 

 destroy them, nor does acetic acid, but it seemed to make manifest a delicate cell wall ; 

 and iodine superadded enhanced this appearance, in many cases causing the contents to 

 collect at one part of the cell (Fig. xlv). 



The membranaceous appearance had disappeared in the fluid on the fourth day, but 

 the granular cells remained visible for nearly a week. 



Illustration III. : — 



The fifth evacuation of a patient suffering from the cold stage of cholera was 

 examined half an hour after it was passed. It was colourless, with a few shreddy flocculi 

 floating in it. It was slightly alkaline. The flakes presented the same membranaceous 

 appearance as in the foregoing example (Fig. xliii), with numerous corpuscles, more or 

 less intimately held in the meshes of this texture, a great number, however, being 

 dispersed in the fluid ; some were oil-like and some granular, examples of both kinds 

 being spherical and oval, and the gradations from the merest particle of slimy or oily 

 matter to the complete corpuscle were so fine, that it was impossible to point out any 

 salient distinguishing character about them. When free, the hyaline and granular 

 corpuscles were more or less round, but when contained in the meshes of this fibrillated 

 texture, were generally elongated, as shown in the drawing (Plate XIV, Fig. xlvi). 



Iodine solution being added to the slide, it was observed that whereas some of them 

 were coloured brownish-red, the greater portion became merely stained by the ordinary 

 tint of the iodine (Fig. xlvii) ; all, however, in the course of the day becoming granular, 

 but the distinction of brown-red and mere yellow remained. 



In the course of an hour other slides were prepared, but the microscopic appearance 

 had become totally different. The oil-like bodies, of whatever shape, had become granular, 

 and the field presented exactly the same appearance as presented in Plate XIII, Figs xli 

 and xliii, while the addition of re-agents produced the same results. On the fourth day 

 all traces of corpuscles had passed away, merely broken down molecular matter remaining. 



4. Intermixed with the corpuscles already described are others to which I wish 

 to allude with the greatest caution. Frequently a globule has been observed for some 



