47 
On the Germinal Matter of the Blood, with Remarks upo7i 
the Formation 0/ Fibrin. By Lionel S. Beale, M.B.^ 
F.R.S., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians ; Pro- 
fessor of Physiology and of General and Morbid Anatomy 
in King^s College, London; Physician to the Hos- 
pital ; kc, &c. 
(Head Dec. 9th, 1863.) 
PLATE IX. 
" Living^ ^ or germinal matter \^ always soft or semifluid, 
and when placed in a medium in which it is free to move, or 
alter its shape, a mass will always assume the spherical form. 
If surrounded by viscid matter, as in mucus, the form of each 
mass of germinal matter may be temporarily changed by 
pressing or stretching the mucus in diflperent directions ; and 
if in the process of growth the viscid medium is continually 
stretched or extended in one particular direction, the masses 
of germinal matter will exhibit an oval shape as long as the 
extending force is exerted. 
In my last paper I showed that the peculiar oval form of 
the germinal matter of the frog^s red blood-corpuscle was 
not due to structural or morphological changes, for when 
such corpuscles were placed in a medium of about their own 
density, it was observed that both the germinal matter and 
the surrounding formed material soon became spherical, un- 
less the latter was too firm or condensed for change in form 
to occur ; but even in this case it has been observed that the 
mass of germinal matter often becomes more spherical than 
it was when the corpuscle was first removed from the body. 
And not unfrequently the living matter undergoes division 
into several portions, each of which assumes the spherical 
form. The material in the inner part of the corpuscle being 
probably semi-fluid, permits this change even in old blood- 
corpuscles, the red material of which is so firm that it retains 
the oval form. 
White blood- corpuscles, chyle-corpuscles, lymph-corpus- 
cles, and the bodies corresponding to these in difi'erent 
animals, the so-called finely granular cells found in the 
spleen, thyroid, and other localities, the so-called " granular 
cells,^^ ^' free nuclei,^^ nuclear particles,^^ &c., found in fluid, 
or nearly fluid, media in a vast number of morbid products, are 
all spherical. The bodies resulting from the division of an 
embryonic granular mass are, in all cases^ at first spherical. 
