378 Dr. Burnett on the Blood-corpuscle-holding Cells. 
This view is supported by many facts which have been ob- 
served in both physiology and pathology. If inflamed blood be 
drawn from the body and allowed to stand, there are, not unfre- 
quently, found at the bottom of the vessel, bodies consisting ap- 
parently of little sacs filled with blood-corpuscles. This is due 
to the fact that a certain number of corpuscles become collected 
into one mass and this last is then invested by a membrane com- 
posed of the blood-plasma. 
That this is the correct version is shown by the fact that these 
capsular bodies sometimes include other matters beside simple 
blood-corpuscles, and Kélliker himself mentions a case where, in 
an extravasation of blood into the commissura mollis, he found 
them containing pieces of cerebral substance. I would mention 
also, that I have observed these conditions distinctly marked in 
some blood of an elephant, which was recently examined. 
My opinion, finally, is like that of Remak, that these peculiar 
bodies are minute blood-clots, (Blutgerinnsel) of accidental oc- 
currence, and of no physiological significance. 
At now remains for me to notice in this connection another sub- 
ject, to which the one we have just treated is somewhat allied. I 
mean the so-called pigment-holding cells of Remak. ‘he his- 
tory and relations of these bodies have been brought out re- 
cently by the discussion of the constituents of the spleen to 
which we have just alluded. If the spleen of fishes is examined, 
there will be found on the sheath of some of its smaller arteries, 
roundish or oval bodies, which consist of a thick-walled capsule 
enclosing pigment granules. These are the bodies in question ; 
they have not unfrequently been mistaken for the Malpighian 
corpuscles. They are tough, and the last parts of the spleen to 
be perfectly closed sacs, and have no communication with the 
artery on which they rest. 
The constancy of their presence, as well as the general regular- 
ity of their size in individual species, would lead me to agree with 
Remak in considering them as true physiological organs. They 
The following appears to be the most probable view of the 
function of the spleen in the economy, as elucidated by the more 
modern microscopical studies. 
_ * For figures of these bodies, see,— 
Killiker, Article Spleen, Cyclop. Anat. rs br 1849—Ecker, R. wanes Icones 
; . , Lirg. I, 1851, Taf. vi—Remak, , Arch. 1852, p. 115 Taf. v, fig. 4, 
