The Structure of Colored Blood- Corpuscles. 311 



the same investigator, 1 to account /^^H^^^fe\ 



for the formation of aflat layer of /^B Wk\ 



living matter, such as forms the Jf ![' Wok 



walls of a vacuole, the membrane i I -;«|i 



of a nucleus, or the outer layer of § : -WM 



the whole hioplassou mass ; this is Ik ;„ «§ 



the protruding by a granule (which \| U if|f 



itself thereby loses its bulk and be- \ ' ,i 



comes flattened) of innumerable ^UpC b^'^ 



pseudopodia or offshoots, which unite •-~~~^^fe->^' 



laterally with each other, and with 



offshoots from neighboring granules. This is illustrated by 

 Fig. 10. 



Heitzmann believes that each of these states may at any time 

 change into the other, i. e., that the network may from the 

 condition of rest be transformed into that of contraction, or 

 of extension, or of flattening, and from each of these into 

 ejther of the others. At all events, there may arise in the 

 bioplasson body a vacuole having a continuous thin wall, and 

 containing lifeless fluid and detached particles of the living mat- 

 ter ; the latter may send delicate offshoots to the Avail of the 

 vacuole, and suddenly the vacuole disappears and the network 

 is re-established throughout the whole body. Or, a bioplasson 

 mass may take into its interior foreign bodies by forming 

 around them a cul-de-sac, which then opens toward the centre 

 and closes at the periphery, and the net-work, rent during the 

 process, re-establishes itself. Again, a bioplasson body, which 

 by flap or knob protrusion and separation has lost a portion of its 

 substance, as well as the portion detached, may become rounded 

 off — the rupture at the place of detachment healing in each 

 case without loss of life. And further, two bioplasson bodies 

 may coalesce, and a portion of the periphery of each be trans- 

 formed into the uniting net-work. 



By adopting these views, and applying them to the living mat- 

 ter of colored blood-corpuscles, we may explain the changes which 

 they have been observed to be subject to. What are the changes 



(1) " The Cell-Doctrine in the light of recent iarestigations. - ' New York Medical Journal, 

 April, 1877. 



