32 
Dr. Beale^ on the Red Blood-corpuscle. 
Obsera^ations upon the Nature of the Ked Blood-cor- 
puscle. By Lionel S. Beale, M.B., F.R.S., Fellow of 
the Boyal College of Physicians ; Professor of Physiology 
and of General and Morbid Anatomy in King's College^ 
London ; Physician to King^s College Hospital^ &c., &c. 
(Read Dec. 9th, 18G3.) 
The red blood-corpuscle is admitted by every one to be one of 
the simplest forms of cell structure. Its nature was discussed 
long before other cell structures were known, and scarcely a 
year passes without several papers being published upon the 
structure, mode of development, or composition of the red 
blood-corpuscle. On these points, however, the most con- 
flicting opinions are entertained by the different observers, 
and the history of the life of the red blood-corpuscle has yet 
to be written. 
Is the red blood-corpuscle a cell with membranous cell-wall, 
and fluid contents ? or is it simply a mass of viscid material 
differing perhaps slightly in density in the outer and inner 
portions ? Is it a living corpuscle that distributes vitality to 
all parts of the organism ? or is it simply a chemical compound 
which readily absorbs oxygen and carbonic acid gases and 
certain fluids ? Is it composed of formative living matter ? 
or does it consist of matter that is inanimate ? Does it absorb 
nutrient matter, grow, divide, and thus give rise to other 
bodies like itself? or does it consist of passive material desti- 
tute of these wonderful powers and about to be -resolved into 
substances of simpler composition and more nearly related to 
inorganic matter ? Again, it may be asked. Does the red 
blood-corpuscle possess the power of altering matter at a dis- 
tance from it, or in contact with it ? or must certain material 
pass into its very substance before it can be changed ? If 
the latter view be accepted, Ave might further inquire if the 
metabolic power resides in the supposed cell-wall or in the 
^ nucleus^ in those cases where such a body exists ; or does the 
hsematine itself convert by some catalytic power the albu- 
minous or other matter which may be mixed with it into 
hsematine of the same kind ? 
Of all the points lately ascertained in coimection with the 
red blood- corpuscles, perhaps by far the most important is 
the property of crystallization which its colouring matter 
possesses. It is most remarkable that the red colouring 
matter of the blood- corpuscles of different animals should 
crystallize in different forms ; and there are instances of ani- 
