The Physiological Destruction of Erythrocytes in Birds. 545 



cells to other structures is much more evident in the liver however, 

 their first description will be limited to that organ. 



In liver specimens observed under medium magnification the 

 cells referred to above, appear as blue patches sharply differentiated 

 from the red-stained parenchyma. These cells are larger in their 

 greatest diameter than the liver cells proper, vary much in size and 

 form, and are often seen to contain two or three carmine- or eosin- 

 stained bodies. In their distribution they display a constant relation 

 to the venous capillaries, often appearing to occupy the lumen of 

 these vessels (Fig. 1). Under the higher powers of the microscope 

 however, it is seen that each cell is an integral part of the endo- 

 thelial intima lining the capillaries; in other words is a fixed tissue 

 cell engaged by one of its surfaces upon the reticulum of the vessel- 

 wall and with a free surface bulging a greater or less degree into 

 the vessel lumen. The attached surface of the cell follows strictly 

 the line of the vessel-wall, be it straight or curved, often continuing 

 around an angle of bifurcation. No processes are seen extending 

 between the liver cells. In fact I have not seen evidence thai these 

 cells possess processes extending in any direction. What appear often 

 as processes are sections of the sheet-like margins of the cells as they 

 follow the concavity of the vessel-wall and fold about an angle of 

 bifurcation as referred to above: Sectioned at favorable angles these 

 thinner areas may appear as processes extending from thicker portion 

 of the cell. The interpretation however, is not difficult with the 

 sharpness of color contrast obtained by the method employed. The 

 cells under discussion are clearly those described in the liver of mam- 

 mals by v. Kupffer first as perivascular connective-tissue cells and 

 finally as intimai cells. To these cells and perhaps to others, the 

 terms "Sternzellen", "stellate cells", "Kupffer cells", have been applied, 

 but to include the same cell as seen in the spleen, the liver and where 

 else it may occur, I shall use the term hemophage. The nucleus displayed 

 by the hemophage stains a deep garnet with the carmine used in the 

 given technique and contains two or three very distinct and intensely 

 stained nucleoli. In the hemophages which are more nearly flat, the nucleus 

 appears like those of the typical endothelial cells, whereas in the 



Internationale Monatsschrift für Anat. u. Phys. XXXI. 35 



