306 The Structure of Colored Blood- Corpuscles . 



emanating from the nucleus, and going to the periphery of the 

 frog's red blood-corpuscle. He adds that the net-work gives 

 the corpuscle its shaps, and fixates the nucleus in the centre. 

 Death of the corpuscle produces first coagulation, afterward 

 liquefaction of the fibers of the net-work. Whenever the fibers 

 are coagulated they are shortened, and produce indentations 

 at the surface by drawing upon the points where they are at- 

 tached ; when the shortening proceeds too far, the fibers are 

 torn off from the membrane, and in both cases of shortening 

 there are places at the surface which look protruded. Lique- 

 faction of the fibers is assumed when the corpuscle has a vesicu- 

 lar appearance, when it seems to contain a semifluid mass in 

 which the nucleus may take any position, and from which it 

 sometimes exudes, proving in exuding the existence of a mem- 

 brane as already described. 1 



Schmidt seems to have seen something like an arrangement 

 of filaments, but if so, has misinterpreted it entirely. He has 

 reported observing 7 in blood of amphiuma treated first with 

 water under the microscope, and then with a very weak solution 

 ' of chromic acid (strength not ascertained), "a series of fine lines, 

 radiating from the periphery of the nucleus through the pro- 

 toplasm to the inner surface of the membranous layer of the 

 blood-corpuscle." He remarks: "Now this picture would al- 

 most seem to corroborate the theory of Hensen, as well as that 

 of Kollmann ; the fine double lines representing the filaments, 

 which they suppose to radiate from the nucleus to the envelop- 

 ing membrane. But this is not the case ; for a closer examina- 

 tion reveals that these lines represent nothing but fissures in 

 the protoplasm, which appears to have assumed some form of 

 crystallization. This becomes more evident by observing some 

 of these fissures, deviating from their course and giving rise to 

 subordinate branches." 2 He has also reported a somewhat ana- 

 logous appearance in the colored blood-corpuscles of the frog, 

 both fresh and treated with the same reagents. This he ex- 

 plained by contraction of the interior mass. He says: "The 

 protoplasm in such a case retracts upon the nucleus, which it 



(1) Op. cit., l>. 95. 



(2) Op. Cit., p. 72. 



