PART I.J Some Conclusions to be Drawn from the Experiments, 145 



blood ; still there is very great need of caution in interpreting the significance of any 

 phenomena which we find may co-exist with health in the subjects furnishing the 

 specimens under examination, nay more, which may be induced accidentally or at will 

 by slight modifications in manipulation. Now, we have no hesitation in affirming 

 that this is the case in regard to the phenomenon under consideration, and, although 

 at first inclined to ascribe some importance to its presence, we have in the course of 

 experience come to regard the whole matter with grave suspicion. Numerous experi- 

 ments clearly showed that echinulation was the invariable consequence of employing a 

 very small quantity of blood so as to spread it out in a very thin layer {vide No. 6, 

 Table I), or of pressure wilfully applied to thick layers {vide Nos. 8 and 9 of the 

 same tableV 



That other influences beyond mere mechanical pressure do, however, result in 

 producing similar appearances was clearly manifest in one or two cases in which the 

 phenomenon came on gradually in specimens preserved in wax-cells in which there 

 could certainly be no pressure on the corpuscles, beyond that of the contained air ; 

 nor could the evaporation have been sufficient to have accounted for the alteration. 

 However induced, the condition appeared in one of two forms : to the first of these, 

 in which the corpuscles appeared beset with very fine projecting points, the term 

 " echinulation " is strictly applicable : whilst in the other " tuberculation " more accu- 

 rately represents the condition, for the corpuscles, instead of presenting their normal 

 smooth outline, were covered with obtuse projections of various sizes. Both forms 

 were commonly present in one and the same sample, although one or other usually 

 predominated. 



2. The liberation of granular and unolecular matter from the white corpuscles. — 

 This process, occurring almost invariably in specimens of blood subjected to continued 

 observation, was fully described in the previous report, and we now again call attention 

 to it merely in order to reiterate the statement that such granules and molecules 

 might very easily be supposed to be extraneous particles of bacteroid nature, were not 

 their source and process of liberation clearly demonstrated by continuous observation 

 of individual specimens. 



3. Motile particles. — It will be seen that these were observed in six samples of 

 blood from five cases, and when present they formed a characteristic feature. They 

 were excessively minute solitary points, just visible under the highest powers employed, 

 and in incessant active motion in the serous spaces among the corpuscles. They 

 were present in the blood immediately on its removal from the body, underwent 

 no further development in specimens retained under observation, but on the contrary 

 usually disappeared within a short time. Their nature could not be satisfactorily 

 determined, but they certainly showed no evidence of being organized, and their 

 motion, although very energetic, may very probably have been purely mechanical, 



10 



