114 



Dr. W. Stirling and A. Rannie. 



" On the Action of certain Reagents upon the Coloured Blood- 

 Corpuscles. Part I. The Coloured Bluod-Corpuscles of the 

 Newt and Frog." By William Stirling, M.D., Sc.D., 

 Professor of the Institutes of Medicine, and Arthur 

 Rannie, Graduate in Medicine of the University of Aber- 

 deen. Communicated by Professor Huxley, F.R.S. Re- 

 ceived June 14. Read June 15, 1882. 



[Plate 1.] 



The histological and chemical constitution of the coloured blood- 

 corpuscles of man and other animals has formed a fertile source of 

 investigation for a large number of observers, and it might seem that 

 further investigations on this subject were unnecessary. We have, 

 however, devoted considerable time to a systematic study of the 

 effects of certain reagents upon the blood of the newt and frog which 

 have yielded results, some of them of not a little interest and 

 importance. 



The literature of the subject, chiefly of the German papers, is given 

 somewhat fully in Rollett's article, " Blood," in Strieker's " Histology," 

 and a careful resume of most of the more recent and some of the older 

 observations will be found in a short paper by Gr. F. Dowdeswell, in 

 the " Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science " for 1881.* Refer- 

 ence will be made to the literature of each reagent under its appro- 

 priate heading. 



The method of conducting the investigation was as follows: — A 

 newt was pithed ; its heart exposed ; the auricle snipped through and 

 the blood collected. f A drop of this blood was then placed on a slide, 

 and covered with a cover-glass, a hair having first been placed between 

 the cover-glass and the slide to admit of the corpuscles rolling freely 

 over and over so as to be seen on edge as well as on the flat, and also 

 to allow the corpuscles to expand freely under the influence of re- 

 agents. The blood was then irrigated with a solution of the reagent 

 to be investigated and examined with a magnifying power of 300 

 diameters, or a higher magnifying power when this was deemed 

 desirable. Similar experiments were made with frog's blood, but 

 newt's blood was preferred on account of the corpuscles being larger. 



Pyrogallic Acid. 



On irrigating a drop of the blood with a 2 per cent, solution of 



* An excellent digest up to date is given by Professor Lankester in his exhaustive 

 paper " Observations and Experiments on the Red Blood- Corpuscle," in the game 

 Journal for the year 1871. 



f Eesults were obtained equally with defibrinated and ordinary blood. 



