44 (214) Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. 



effect, however, is not directly due to the inhibition of the coagu- 

 lation of the blood, but probably to changes in the blood which 

 will still have to be determined. 



23 (115). " Granula and ameboid movements in the blood 

 cells of arthropods " : LEO LOEB. 



If one observes a drop of blood of Limulus, or of other 

 arthropods, under the microscope immediately after it has left the 

 body, an interesting phenomenon is seen. The large majority of 

 the cell granula become smaller and soon disappear. The cells 

 which we're at first oval become round and send out hyalin pro- 

 toplasm and pseudopodia. Movements of the protoplasm may be 

 observed for a long time, but ultimately they cease, when the cells 

 are spread out entirely and in this condition the cells gradually die. 



It has been the author's aim to determine the conditions which 

 inhibit or accelerate this apparently spontaneous dissolution of the 

 cell granula. From the results of these investigations, which can- 

 not be given here in detail, it follows that the fate of the granules 

 of arthropod blood-cells depends upon certain mechanical condi- 

 tions, and that the apparently spontaneous dissolution of cell 

 granula can to a large degree be inhibited by preventing certain 

 mechanical irritations of the cells. The changes taking place in 

 the granules are very? fine indicators of certain mechanical or 

 chemical alterations in the environment of the cells. Such 

 changes are determined by the character of the foreign bodies with 

 which the cells come in contact, lipoid substances being especially 

 favorable for the preservation of the granules. Temperature, os- 

 motic conditions and the reaction of the medium in which the cells 

 are suspended, influence the granules in a definite way. Further- 

 more, the presence of certain electrolytes is necessary for the pres- 

 ervation of the granules in isotonic, hypotonic, and, with the 

 exception of sugar solutions, also in hypertonic solutions. The 

 cell granules are dissolved in isotonic solutions of non-electrolytes. 

 Different electrolytes exert different, specific influences. 



We see, moreover, that certain substances may dissolve cell 

 granules without enabling the protoplasm to carry out ameboid 

 movements, but in the large majority of cases a certain parallelism is 

 observed between the fat contents of the granules and the ameboid 



