484 PROF. G. GULLIVER ON [June 15, 
sible, between members of the first two families and Man. In the 
largeness of the corpuscles the Hyznas are more like Dogs than 
Viverras. The Fox has the corpuscles smaller than those of the 
common Dog and Dingo (fig. 15). Cercoleptes (fig. 13) in the 
smallness of the corpuscles resembles a Viverra, thus hardly appear- 
ing to be a regular member of Plantigrada or Urside ; but, on the 
other hand, I have found the muscular sheath of the cesophagus 
(Proc. Zool. Soc., May 12, 1870) of Cercoleptes more like that of a 
Bear than of a Civet. Bassaris (fig. 12) in the size of its corpuscles 
agrees with the Urside and differs from the Viverride. Of the In- 
sectivora (fig. 10), excepting the curious and surprising deviation in 
Sorex indicus, the corpuscles are somewhat smaller than those of Plan- 
tigrada (fig. 11). In that species the corpuscles are hardly, if at all, 
distinguishable from those of Man, as was shown to me by my son, 
who brought the blood from the Mauritius. In that country this 
Shrew is called the Musk-Rat, and, as it is very common, the 
fact of the size of its red blood-corpuscles might become one of the 
many objections to the identification by micrometry of human blood- 
stains. In the Bats (figs. 7-9) the corpuscles are just appreciably 
larger in the frugivorous than in the insectivorous species. In the 
Monkeys (figs. 4 and 5) the corpuscles are somewhat larger still, 
with a tendency to a diminution of size in the Lemurs (fig. 6), but 
generally so nearly approaching in the higher species to the human 
corpuscles as to be scarcely distinguishable therefrom. 
In Man (figs. 1 and 2) the red blood-corpuscles are not always 
distinguishable from those of the Dog, but are regularly larger than 
in avy British land Mammals, and are not known to be exceeded in 
size in more than eight or nine foreign species of this class, though 
closely approximated, or even surpassed, in some Marsupials, Eden- 
tates, Rodents, Cetaceans, Ferze, and most Monkeys. As before 
noticed (p. 476), the magnitude of the corpuscles in a single species, 
not excepting the human, is liable to variations within certain limits ; 
and there commonly appear in one field of vision of the same cor- 
puscles differences amounting to at least one third larger and smaller 
than the average. Hence as regards the medico-legal question, how- 
ever truly a careful observer (Dr. Joseph G. Richardson, Month. 
Micros. Journ., Sept. 1874) may have distinguished, by comparative 
measurements of the corpuscles, stains of human blood from those 
of the Sheep or Ox, this kind of diagnosis, as Dr. J. J. Woodward 
observes (Month. Micros. Journ., Feb. 1875), would be ineffectual in 
some probable and more possible cases (see before at p. 477). It 
should be borne in mind, too, that in the Apyrenzemata the mem- 
branous bases (fig. 3) of the blood-disks, when deprived of their 
colour by maceration in water, are about a third smaller than the 
unaltered corpuscles. 
Much larger red blood-corpuscles than those of the human species 
may be expected in the most gigantic marine Fer and Cetacea. 
The largeness of the corpuscles in Orycteropus was truly predicted 
long before they were ever examined ; and we may well suppose that 
they were larger in the huge extinct Edentates than in any existing 
