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Mr. E. Ray Lankester on Haemoglobin. [Dec. 12, 



also the single band of reduced Hb when treated with reducing agents. 

 The corpuscles measure about "o °^ an ^ 31C ^ 1 ^ length and ™ 

 breadth. They are by far the most abundant, but not the only corpuscles 

 in the liquid. Colourless amoeboid corpuscles are also present. Acetic 

 acid brings out a clearly emarginated nucleus in the red corpuscles. Ace- 

 tate of rosaniline, both with these corpuscles and the red corpuscles of 

 Glycera and of Phoronis, stains the nucleus intensely, and gives one or 

 two eccentrically placed niaculae, as was observed by Dr. Roberts in 

 human and vertebrate blood generally. I have not obtained these macula3 

 in corpuscles devoid of Haemoglobin ; and since, in the cases of Glycera, of 

 Phoronis, and Solen legumen, where this body is present, as in the verte- 

 brate red corpuscles, the Robertsian macula is obtained, there is some 

 ground for believing that the substance which is thus rendered evident by 

 coloration with magenta is connected with the Haemoglobin, being either 

 a part of its decomposition-product, due to the action of the rosaniline, or a 

 necessary concomitant of it in the blood-corpuscle. Since the other 

 species of Solen accompanying Solen legumen in the Grulf of Naples have 

 colourless blood, I was anxious to see whether the corpuscles which bear 

 the Haemoglobin in that species are represented in anyway in the others. 

 I therefore examined the blood of Solen ensis. I found but few corpuscles 

 present ; and these were all perfectly colourless, and exhibited very active 

 amoeboid movements, throwing out processes in various directions with 

 great rapidity, and running together into adherent masses on the glass 

 slip ; whilst under the microscope magenta brought a large nucleus in 

 them, with brilliant staining, but gave no trace of an eccentric macula, such 

 as that which characterizes Haemoglobin-bearing corpuscles under similar 

 treatment. 



4. Absence of Hcemoglobin from the blood of the fish Leptocephalus, with 

 presence of corpuscles corresponding to the red corpuscles. — The beautiful 

 little fish Leptocephalus is, with the exception of the black-pigmented 

 eyes, perfectly colourless and glass-hke. I am not aware of traces of red 

 colour in its blood having been carefully sought for ; but there certainly 

 are none. The blood-vessels possess no tint whatever, and the gills, 

 moreover, are perfectly free from colour. Notwithstanding this absence 

 of Haemoglobin, the blood of Leptocephalus presents, as observed by Kol- 

 liker, both the colourless amoeboid corpuscles of vertebrate blood and 

 elliptic nucleated corpuscles, also colourless, exactly comparable to those 

 which bear the Haemoglobin in other fish. This fact is remarkable when 

 put side by side with the observation that the perivisceral fluid of Anne- 

 lids generally presents no corpuscles comparable to those which bear 

 Haemoglobin in Glycera, Capitella, and Phoronis. The ordinary amoeboid 

 corpuscles are present in both series ; and in the latter the Haemoglobin- 

 bearing corpuscles appear as a special addition. 



In Amphioxus I may mention that I have not succeeded, after trials, 

 in obtaining spectroscopic evidence of Haemoglobin, though Wilhelm 



