PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 



1842. No. 56. 



December 8, 1842. 

 The MARQUIS OF NORTHAMPTON, President, in the Chair. 

 The following papers were read, viz. : — 



1. "Observations on the Blood-corpiiscles, particularly with re- 

 ference to opinions expressed and conclusions drawn in papers ' On 

 the Corpuscles of the Blood,' and ' On Fibre,' recently published 

 in the Philosophical Transactions." By T. Wharton Jones, Esq., 

 F.R.S. 



The author points out what he considers to be important errors in 

 the series of papers by Dr. Martin Barry, which have lately appeared 

 in the Philosophical Transactions, and are entitled, " On the Corpus- 

 cles of the Blood" and " On Fibred He alleges that Dr. Barry has 

 generally confounded the colourless corpuscles contained in the blood 

 wdth the red corpuscles of the same fluid ; each of which latter kind 

 consists of a vesicle or cell, with thick walls, but in a collapsed and 

 flattened state, and having therefore a biconcave form, and in con- 

 sequence of its thick wall being doubled on itself, presenting under 

 the microscope a broad circumferential ring, which is illuminated 

 or shaded differently from the depressed central portion, according 

 to the focal adjustment of the instrument: while the colourless 

 corpuscles, on the other hand, are of a globular shape, strongly 

 refractive of light, and granulated on their surface, and are of less 

 specific gravity and of somewhat larger size than the red corpuscles. 

 The author quotes various passages from Dr. Barry's papers in proof 

 of his assertions, and refers particularly to fig. 23 of his second 

 paper on the corpuscles of the blood. He farther states, that Dr. 

 Barry's description of the appearances of what he terms the red 

 corpuscles, in paragraphs 53, 68, and 76 of his second paper, can, 

 in fact, apply only to the colourless corpuscles : and he observes, 

 that even when Dr. Barry does, at last, in his " Additional Observa- 

 tions," advert to the distinction between the red and the colourless 

 globules, he considers the latter as being merely "the discs" con- 

 tained in the red globules appearing under an altered state. 



The author regards as wholly erroneous the notion which Dr. 

 Barry entertains that a fibre exists in the interior of the blood- cor- 



