PART I.] Are any of these Corpuscles Peculiar to Cholera ? 25 



I am not certain whether an inner or an outer wall exists, but sometimes it seemed 

 very like as if the outer gave way for a filmy inner lining to come forth (3), at other 

 times it seemed quite the reverse (4). After a short time the projections in many 

 cases appeared no longer to be retracted, and were seen to curve upon the cell as the 

 evaporating fluid bore it along (5). Some, however, are seen to be of larger size (6). 

 Thirdly^ blood-cells which have assumed very peculiar outlines, the result of diosmoais 

 (7) ; and fourthly, innumerable animalculae, of the kind already alluded to, exhibiting 

 great activity amongst the various cells in the field (8). 



The patient died on the next day, but a stool was examined a few minutes before 

 death ; it was highly coloured with blood, and contained a great number of animalculse 

 (Plate XVI, Fig. Ix). Some of these were tugging at the blood-cells and altering their 

 form, distinctly pulling the pellicle or cell envelope away from the enclosed plasma. 

 No. 1 was altered to 2, 3, and 4 in the manner described and shown in the figure. 

 The animalculse presented an unusual appearance ; either a large clear space existed 

 in most of them, of the same size as the blood-cells, or one or two blood-cells had 

 become engulphed in their homogeneous substance. In some cases they were distinctly 

 seen to be merely adherent, the little creature rushing along as if it had no burden. 



The next day the blood-cells had become granular, but the animalculse were as 

 plentiful as ever, and continued so for a fortnight, everything else having broken down. 



Having now given a brief account of these few classes of corpuscular bodies, and 

 shown that none of them were seen to germinate like the spores of fungi, the question 

 naturally arises — Are any of them peculiar to cholera? 



The first class, namely, those of a fatty nature, need not be considered, for no 

 one will suppose them to be peculiar to the disease ; the same may be said concern- 

 ing the presence of blood, and as to the shape assumed by its corpuscles, the figure 

 already given in connection with " chylous urine " will show that there is nothing 

 peculiar about it, nor yet about the amoeba-like movements of the blood-corpuscles, as 

 the following easily repeated little experiment will show. 



A small portion of a slightly alkaline cholera evacuation was filtered off into a 

 test tube, and having pricked my finger, a few drops of blood were allowed to fall into 

 the fluid, with which it was immediately mixed, and a drop of the mixture transferred 

 on a slide to the microscope ; nearly all the red cells were seen to present a stellate 

 or ecchinnulate appearance (Fig. Ixi, 1) ; only a few white corpuscles were visible, and 

 these presented a granular, more or less circular outline (2). Some, however, were 

 spread out like an amoeba (3), but no movements were seen. In the course of two 

 hours the stellate form of the red cells had disappeared, and presented the various 

 forms commonly seen in evacuations (4). Having been unable to see any of the 

 white cells protrude portions of their substance, it occurred to me that, perhaps, 

 the temperature of the fluid being only 80°, was the cause; consequently another 

 portion of the fluid was filtered and carefully warmed up to 110°, when a drop or 



