414 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
motion of the substance of the red blood-corpuscle of Vertebrates. The 
fact that these corpuscles are discoidal or elliptical flattened bodies 
seems to have been neglected by physiological writers. Mr. Ryder has 
attempted to show that not only has the shape of these bodies very 
great physiological significance, but that these shapes are also adaptive. 
What he attempts to do is to show that it may be that there is a vortical 
flux of substance from the centre to the periphery, or from the periphery 
to the centre of every such corpuscle during life, and that moreover, 
such a flux, taken in conjunction with the viscosity of the substance of 
the corpuscle and its original or embryonic globular form, is responsible 
for its shape. The flattening and vortical flux of the substance of the 
corpuscle may be regarded as adaptive physiological devices, by means 
of which its respiratory efficiency is vastly increased. The first con- 
dition satisfied by the flattened form of the red blood-corpuscle is an 
increase of its superficial area. This would indeed also be the case 
with the corpuscle were it elongated into a filament, but such filaments 
would inevitably tend to choke up or occlude the vessels. It is pointed 
out that there is an actual saving of energy consequent upon transform- 
ing the primitively globular blood-cells into discs instead of into fila- 
ments. It may therefore be assumed that the size of the corpuscle is 
directly related to the rate of metabolism of the organism. Thus, in 
the sluggish Batrachia, the corpuscles are large, in the more active 
fishes and reptiles smaller, and in mammals and birds still smaller. 
The author thinks that it is self-evident that a double vortical flux 
must take place from two opposite poles of a primitively globular blood- 
corpuscle, in passing from its primitive shape to that of its complete or 
adult elliptical or discoidal form, upon mere contemplation of the 
geometrical conditions that must accompany the transformation of the 
same fluid globular mass to the form of a disc with rounded edges. The 
fact that the Amoeba cannot move without developing a vortical flux of 
its own substance through itself, is, it seemed to Mr. Ryder, evidence 
of the possibility and probability of the same thing occurring in red 
corpuscles. If the foregoing hypothesis is true, we have no less than 
ten millions of vortex rings of particles twirling together in pairs for 
every cubic millimetre of blood that circulates through the vessels of 
our body. 
Organic Structure.* — Dr. F. Dreyer discusses Biitschli's further 
investigations on organic structure. (1) Biitschli previously described 
the fine foam-like structure observed in coagulated white of egg, gum 
arabic, and gelatin ; he has since worked with “ soluble starch,” 
collodium, resin, &c., with similar results. (2) While dry silicic acid 
shows no microscopic structure, that which becomes glassy in water 
has temporarily a fine webbed appearance. (3) A study of the sphsero- 
crystals and crystals of inulin and the like has shown again a webbed 
appearance; but this may be due to layered groups of globulites 
(i. e. droplets of a highly over-saturated solution of the substance). 
(4) Cellulose membranes of Caulerpa prolifera, bast cells of Nerium 
Oleander , &c., show a webbed appearance, and artificial cellulose as well 
as the natural product. (5) Cellulose precipitated on cotton fibres from 
a solution repeated the concentric webbed structure of the fibre, and 
* Biol. Cenfralbl., xv. (1895) pp, 267-85. 
