328 Mr. Gulliver on certain Peculiarities of form in the 



in any class of animals. These corpuscles I have examined 

 particularly in the Muntjac, Porcine, and Mexican Deer. 



I observed in the blood of these animals a large quantity of 

 crescentic or lunated particles, besides a few of the common 

 circular figure. The former are very remarkable from their 

 great number and distinct shape; they are acutely pointed at 

 the ends, gibbous in the middle, with a convex and concave 

 margin ; or being without the concavity, they merely present 

 the figure of the segment of a circle. 



But there are other forms equally-singular : frequently they 

 are not curved, but straight, and gibbous at. the sides— lanceo- 

 late, to use a botanical term ; occasionally they are obtuse at 

 one end, something like a comma in shape ; or, from an acute 

 projection of the con vex part, approaching to atriangular figure. 

 I have seen them also nearly square, and not uncommonly 

 with elongation of the angles and concavity of the margins, 

 the latter peculiarities being also sometimes observable in 

 the triangular particles. Finally, they may present a sigmoid 

 figure, as if from twisting of the ends of the lanceolate forms. 



Like the common blood discs, these peculiar corpuscles 

 are easily deprived of their colouring matter and rendered in- 

 visible by water ; but if only a very small quantity of this fluid 

 be added to them, they quickly swell out and assume an oval 

 or circular figure, forming, by the approximation of their 

 edges, long bead-like strings. When treated with saline solu- 

 tions, the oblong particles become rather smaller, but preserve 

 their figure tolerably well. 



These singular particles constitute the greater number of 

 those present in the serum, particularly if the blood be kept 

 three or four hours after having been taken from the animal ; 

 and the forms are often well preserved in cool weather for 

 nearly a week; in perfectly recent blood they seem to be rather 

 less numerous, although in a short time all the shapes may be 

 recognized abundantly*. 



If these singular corpuscles are merely the result of changes 

 of form in the circular discs, such transformations would 

 appear to be altogether peculiar, and at variance with all our 

 previous knowledge of the blood corpuscles of the mammalia. 



The first impression will probably be that some of the 

 forms I have described are those which may be presented by 

 different views of the circular discs as they revolve on their 

 axes. Hence it may be necessary to observe, that the cres- 

 centic corpuscles are sometimes seen to turn over in the field 



* The blood was constantly examined as soon as possible after it was 

 taken from the animal — often within twenty minutes, and always in 

 less than an hour; and in every case directly the blood flowed through 

 the wound specimens were dried instantaneously on glass, with the pre- 

 cautions mentioned in my paper in the Phil. Mag. for Feb. 1840. 



