68 The Structure of Colored Blood- Corpuscles. 



grotesque shapes may be met with. In the cases, too, of con- 

 striction and separation, the corpuscle, with the portions at- 

 tached and unattached, sometimes gradually becomes rounded 

 off so as to look like a parent globule surrounded by a number 

 of little ones. 



Secondly : — Usually in the course of half an hour, the pro- 

 trusion of little round or roundish, more or less light colored 

 knobs takes place. At first, only very few corpuscles show 

 knobs, and the knobs are extremely small, and few in number, 

 say only one, or at most two or three, on a corpuscle ; but in 

 the course of an hour or two, more corpuscles protrude knobs, 

 more knobs are protruded from one corpuscle, and the knobs 

 grow larger (fig. 2, a, Nos. 1 and 2). Occasionally a knob 

 is drawn in again, and the former contour re-established. In 

 some instances protrusion and retraction occur repeatedly, so 

 that knobs appear and disappear, or become larger and smaller, 

 very slowly, but repeatedly for some time. Occasionally a 

 knob is pedunculated, and sometimes becomes detached from 

 the corpuscle, while on the other hand some knobs are quite 

 sessile (see fig. 2). 



I have measured portions detached in either of the two ways 

 described, and found them to vary from the s 6 o o o t° the tsVo of 

 an inch (.00084 -.00338 Mm.). All except the very largest 

 may usually be seen in constant oscillatory (molecular) move- 

 ment, and, unless entangled between larger stationary corpus- 

 cles, easily moving across the field (the latter probably caused by 

 minute variation from absolute equilibrium level of the micro- 

 scope stage). 



In some dentated or so-called " mulberry " forms, knobs or 

 small eminences protrude from the face of the disk, which may 

 give to the inexperienced observer the impression of internal 

 granules ; but proper focussing corrects this impression, and 

 shows the knobbed surface (fig. 2, b). 



In addition to the protean changes in shape initiated by in- 

 dentation and protrusion, there are still others occasionally 

 met with, due to combination or coalescence of two or more 



