312 The Structure of Colored Blood-Corpuscles. 



that occur on the addition of a 40°o saturated solution of bichro- 

 mate of potash? I have described indentions and protrusions 

 which either persist or are levelled again ; protrusion of knobs, 

 either pedunculated or sessile, which sometimes are so numerous 

 that they surround the body of the corpuscle like a wreath ; de- 

 crease of the size of the main body by detachment of knobs-; ap- 

 pearance of net-work structure, most marked in the corpuscles 

 which have not lost much of their substance ; vacuolization of 

 corpuscles, and transformation of many of the portions detached 

 into vacuolized globules which increase in size; finally, change 

 into faint, almost structureless disks, the so-called "ghosts." 



The regular rosette, stellated, and thorn-apple shapes are 

 caused by a uniform concentric contraction of the living mat- 

 ter; — the fluid in the interior, being pressed toward the outer 

 layer between the points of attachment of the threads, will pro- 

 duce a bulging out at the periphery. Irregular contractions of 

 the living matter will give rise to irregular flaps at the peri- 

 phery. 



An indentation is due to locally limited contraction of the 

 net-work in the interior of the corpuscle. Contraction of the 

 living matter at one part of the periphery will bring about a 

 protrusion of a flap at another, the flap being bounded by the 

 outer layer of the corpuscle. 



Segmental contraction of the net-work will produce a rupture 

 of the outer layer of the corpuscle, with projection of a pedun- 

 culated granule or knob, formerly a part of the interior net- 

 work. Continued contraction will be followed by the rupture 

 of the pedicle, and the production of either so-called detritus or 

 small granules, or when the protruded knob is larger, or has 

 become swelled, of a pale grayish disk. 1 



Lastly, a large amount of the net- work having been separated 



(1) The peculiar corpuscles believed to be characteristic of syphilis by Lostorfer, and 

 proved by Strieker, to be present in the blood of individuals broken down by that and various 

 other diseases, are nothing but such disks, i. e., portions of the colored blood-corpuscles 

 protruded from the interior, detached and more or less swelled. As persons in low states of 

 health have a relatively small amount of living matter in the same bulk, or, in other words, 

 only a delicate network within the bioplasson body or plastid (the so-called "cell"), such a 

 network suspended in a relatively large amount of fluid can much more easily contract and 

 bring about a rupture of the outer layer, than in the case of healthy persons within whose 

 plastids there is relatively less room for contraction to take place. 



