Apbil 22, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



629 



In that case the cathode discharge is (to use a 

 figure of speech) drawn through, rather than 

 forced through the tube. Their bearing on 

 lightning protection may also be of impor- 

 tance. 



Francis E. Niphee 



a preliminary report of a new blood picture 

 The fact that the white blood cells and 

 particularly the neutrophiles of the blood re- 

 act to certain bacilli and certain toxins in 

 such a definite way is of great assistance to 

 the differential blood count either in diag- 

 nosis or in prognosis. 



Arneth' first showed something of this in 

 his papers upon tuberculosis where he showed 

 that while blood of a normal person contains 

 neutrophiles which have nuclei from one to 

 five lobes, that of a tubercular person con- 

 tains neutrophiles whose nuclei have only one, 

 two or three lobes. 



A study of the neutrophiles of normal 

 blood shows that they can be divided into five 

 groups according to the number of the lobes 

 of the nucleus, i. e.. Group I., those neutro- 

 philes which contain a single lobed nucleus; 

 Group II., those which contain two lobes and 

 so on up to Group V., which contains those 

 neutrophiles which have five lobes to the 

 nucleus. The number of neutrophiles in these 

 different groups, where one hundred neutro- 

 philes have been counted, forms what may be 

 called the differential neutrophile count, and 

 this is practically constant for all normal 

 blood. 



I. II. III. IV. V 



100 neutrophiles 5 20 48 22 5 



To make this as simple as possible, in order 

 to chart it, a proportion between the two types 

 of neutrophiles can be made as was suggested 

 by Bushnell and Treuholtz,' that is, between 

 those neutrophiles which have the fewer lobes, 

 or Group I., Group 11. and half of Group III. 

 and those neutrophiles which have more lobes, 

 or Group V., Group IV. and half of Group 



ni. 



^ Arneth, " Die Lungenschwindsueht am Konig 

 Juliuspital," Wurzburg, 1905. 



= C. E. Bushnell and C. A. Treuholtz, Medical 

 Record, March 21, 1908. 



Since in normal blood the proportion is 

 usually even, one can thus see at a glance to 

 which side the number of pieces of the nucleus 

 has shifted. 



I. II. III. IV. V. 

 Blood from normal 



person 5 20 48 22 5 = 49:51 



Blood from person 



with tuberculosis 20 32 40 8 0^72:28 

 Blood from person 



with infection .. 2 8 40 30 20 = 30:70 



The results from my experiments seem to 

 prove that the neutrophile reacts to changes 

 in its environment by some change, probably 

 metabolic, which involves the nucleus and 

 that the state of the nucleus, together with 

 the differential blood count, can be used as a 

 guide as to the condition of the body. 



Experiments where guinea pigs were inoc- 

 ulated with tuberculosis bacilli show that the 

 neutrophile first reacts by a rapid increase in 

 the number of lobes of its nucleus and then, 

 later when the guinea pig reaches a state of 

 definite tuberculosis, the neutrophile contains 

 a nucleus of but one, two or three lobes. 



Experiments of different sorts show that 

 this same increase of the number of lobes of 

 the nucleus can take place in blood outside the 

 body in such a short time as five or ten 

 minutes. 



All the slides I have examined in the op- 

 sonic work show this same increase in the 

 number of lobes of the nucleus and I might 

 mention here that it seems a mistake to test 

 certain serum with normal neutrophiles as is 

 done in Wright's opsonic work, since the 

 neutrophiles of the patient may have an en- 

 tirely different ability to react, from those of 

 the normal person. 



Some toxins, especially snake toxin, has the 

 same effect upon the neutrophiles and causes 

 a great increase in the number of lobes of the 

 nucleus. 



Observations in the hospital, together with 

 these experiments, seem to prove that the neu- 

 trophiles first react to the presence of bacilli 

 or a toxin by some metabolic change, which is 

 shown by increase in the number of lobes of 

 the nucleus; these reacted cells then break 

 down or are used up in the blood followed by 



