PART III.] 



Particulate Objects seen in Blood. 



561 



which they require, whether in liquid or gaseous form, and removing from them such 

 products of change as are not required for the efficient exercise of their functions. 



The circulation may become the habitat of minute organisms belonging to either 

 the vegetable or animal kingdom, as also to that group of organisms so closely related 

 to both as to render it, in the present state of our knowledge, impossible to say 

 definitely to which they belong — the group which Professor Hackel has proposed to 

 regard as a third organic kingdom and has termed Protista. 



It will, however, be convenient in the present paper to assume, for purposes of 

 classification, that the organisms which have been found in the blood are either plants 

 or animals. 



Before adopting such a classification, however, it may be as well to mention that from 

 time to time various particulate objects have been described as occurring in the blood 

 in regard to which no sufficient evidence yet exists to warrant their recognition as 

 independent beings. These have been generally described as connected with certain 



A 



B 



C 



Fig. 36. — Development of organisms in human blood (Hartnack's Ocular 8, Objective 7). 



A. A mass from healthy blood at 10 A. M. 



B. Ditto ditto at 1 0-30 A. M. 



C. Ditto ditto at 11 A. M. 



(After Osier.) 



diseases, but bodies of an allied character are, not uncommonly, found associated with 

 no perceptible disturbance of the normal condition. 



Bodies of the latter kind have recently been very carefully described by Dr. William 

 Osier.* They had, however, long before this, been the subject of controversy among 

 pathologists. Max Schultze, L. Eiess, and many others having contributed towards our 

 knowledge of their character. The bodies in question are granular masses, composed 

 of aggregations of corpuscular elements, and not uncommonly referred to as " micrococcus 

 colonies " (Fig. 36, A). As Dr. Osier says, " There are probably few observers in the 

 habit of examining blood who have not at some time or other been puzzled for an 

 explanation of their presence and nature. They are particularly plentiful in the blood 

 of foetal and newly born animals." Max Schultze considered that they are derived from 

 the degenerated white corpuscles of the blood. Riess is of a like opinion. Osier, 

 however, considers them to be organisms in the liquor sanguinis, basing his opinion 



* Av Account of Certain'Organisms occurring in Liquor sanguinis. — Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1874. 



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