The Structure of Colored Blood-Corpuscles. 291 



Biology of the International Medical Congress of Philadel- 

 phia, a slide with a colored blood-corpuscle of the Amphiuma 

 tridactylum, of which it is reported that " the imperfectly 

 crystallized cell-contents occupy the upper end, while the 

 oval granular nucleus fills the inferior extremity, leaving the 

 membranous capsule relaxed and wrinkled longitudinally, 

 hanging like part of a half-flaccid balloon between them." 1 

 Arloing, as the result of his observations,-^ ascribed a mem- 

 brane to red blood-corpuscles. Jfollmann, after expressly 

 declaring that when he uses the word membrane in relation 

 •to red blood-corpuscles, he means to speak of what may be 

 called an " artefact," i. e. " that apparent membrane which 

 Is made visible by the action of reagents,"f discusses the 

 ;arguments pro and con, and concludes that " the adherents 

 of a membrane have for their opinions, at least as many rea- 

 sons as the opponents."* He himself believes in "the exist 

 <ence of a membrane in the fresh condition, which can be 

 made visible by the action of reagents by depriving the cor- 

 ipuscle of coloring matter, and which, when it does not become 

 visible, has been destroyed by the reagent." 5 According to 

 .Bottcher, the outer layer of the same blood-corpuscle is not 

 the same at all times and under all circumstances. He seems 

 to regard the appearance of a distinct membrane as an arti- 

 ficial production ; but considers " the cortical layer as the 

 result of a process of development which deprives the blood- 

 >cells more and more of their protoplasm, and finally converts 

 them into homogeneous bodies." He, therefore, classes it 

 "with the capsule of cartilage cells, and with the cellulose 

 membrane of vegetable cells." 8 Fuchs observed a membrane 



(1) Transactions of the International Medical Congress of Philadelphia, held in 1876. 

 Philadelphia. 1877, p. 488. 



(2)" Recherches sur la nature du globule sangu^n." Compt. rendus, t. 74 (1872), No, 19, 

 pp. 1256-1 59. 



(3) "Bau der rothen Blutkbrperchen." Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie, vol. 

 XXin, Heft 3 (Nov. 18, 1873), p. 467. 



(4) Ibid., p. 482. 



(5) Ibid., p. 480, 



(6) Compare " Neue TJntersuchungen uber die rothen Blutkbrperchen," Memoires de 

 V Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, VII gerie, f, 22 (1876), No. 11, p. 8 : 



