96 PROF. GULLIVER ON THE RED CORPUSCLES [Feb. 25, 



lation between these and the red corpuscles. In short, ceeleris pari- 

 bus, the higher the organization of the animal, the greater is the 

 quantity and surface of the red corpuscles, and vice versa. The 

 sum of this surface of a given quantity will be increased in proportion 

 to their minuteness, and diminished in proportion to their largeness, 

 just as the surface of a pound of lead would be much greater in small 

 than in large shot. 



Man. — But few Mammalia have larger corpuscles than Man ; 

 among these may be noted the elephant, the whale, the great ant- 

 eater. 



Quadrumana. — The corpuscles differ but little from those of Man, 

 being only just appreciably, or sometimes not at all, smaller, both in 

 the monkejrs of the old and new continents. In the lemurs the cor- 

 puscles are slightly smaller generally. 



Cheiroptera and Insectivorous Ferce. — The corpuscles are slightly 

 smaller than in the monkeys. 



Ferce. — There is Considerable diversity in the size of the corpuscles, 

 but such a marked disposition to uniformity in those of certain sub- 

 divisions of the order, that some of them might be distinguished from 

 others by a comparison simply of the corpuscles. Some of the small 

 Felidce have rather larger corpuscles than the lion or tiger. If set 

 down in the order of the size of the corpuscles, from large to small, 

 the families would stand thus : — seals, dogs, bears, weasels, cats, 

 viverras. A Viverra may be instantly known, by the smallness of the 

 red corpuscles, from a dog. In the seals, otters, and dogs the cor- 

 puscles are about as large as in Man, and those of the viverras as 

 small as in some little species of Ruminantia. Bassaris has been 

 alternately associated with the bears and viverras ; as far as re- 

 gards its corpuscles it agrees best with the bears. The Kinkajou in 

 the same respect approaches more to the viverras than to the bears 

 and weasels with which it has at different times been arranged. 



Pachydermata. — As discovered by Mandl, the elephant has cor- 

 puscles larger than those of Man ; in the rhinoceros they are rather 

 smaller than in Man, and still smaller in the tapirs, pigs, and horse. 

 In Hyrax the corpuscles are enlarged again ; so that in this respect 

 this animal is more like a rodent than a pachyderm. Indeed, it may 

 be expected that, whenever a marked difference exists in the cor- 

 puscles of any species as compared with the corpuscles of its nearest 

 allies, that species will prove to be an aberrant one — Cercoleptes, 

 Bassaris, Hyrax, for example. 



Cetacea. — In Balcsna the corpuscles are slightly larger than in 

 Man, and rather smaller in the porpoise, with an intermediate size 

 in the ca'ing whale. 



Buminantia. — An order characterized by the smallness of the cor- 

 puscles. In the Napu musk deer, meminna, and Stanley musk 

 deer I discovered* that the red corpuscles are the smallest known 

 in the animal kingdom, and that those of the brocket deer and the 

 Ibex are next in minuteness. Then follows a further enlargement 



* See Med. Chir. Trans, vol. xxiii. ; Dublin Medical Press, Nov. 27, 1839; and 

 the Lancet, vol. ii. p. 101, 1840-41. 



