PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 
243 
He believes tlio facts brought forward support him in the views he 
has long held, though antagonistic to those generally received, and 
which were first introduced by Rollet. Formerly he made use of 
alcohol for hardening the corpuscles, and then clearing them with 
acetic acid, demonstrated that they contained a nucleus ; but fre- 
quently the distention caused by the latter counteracted the beneficial 
action of the former reagent. He has now been led to make use of a 
saturated solution of corrosive sublimate in 96 p.c. alcohol, and into 
about 50 volumes of this solution one of blood is to be rapidly diffused. 
The effect of this is that the corpuscles are deprived of the hsematine 
which colours them, and thus their internal structure is rendered 
clear ; their preservation and bleaching take place at the same time. 
The action of the fluid is assisted by frequent agitation, and in about 
a day the red corpuscles have lost all colour, and when allowed to 
subside are more or less pale, whilst the superincumbent fluid is clear 
and of a dark brownish colour. This is then poured off and pure 
alcohol substituted, which is to be frequently agitated to ensure 
thorough washing of the corpuscles. In twenty-four hours or more 
the alcohol is poured off, and the process repeated with distilled 
water. When the corpuscles are again allowed to subside, they form 
a nearly white layer at the bottom of the vessel, and are no longer 
liable to be acted on by water. In this state Professor Boettcher 
claims to be able to find the structure to which he draws attention, 
but it is rendered more clear by a process of staining, and for this 
purpose he has made use of eosin, hematoxylin, picric acid, and 
carmine, giving the preference to the last, the gradations of tint 
rendering the various components more ready of recognition. The 
three classes of red blood-corpuscles which the Professor describes, 
contain one, two, and three elements respectively. The first appeal’s 
to be homogeneous, and shiny throughout ; the second, added to a 
homogeneous shiny cortical layer, has a granular mass in the 
interior which takes the staining fluid readily ; the third has the 
same cortical layer and protoplasm, but enclosed in the latter is a 
clear nucleus containing a nucleolus. In the same paper an account 
is given of the examination of the blood of a man who had poisoned 
himself with an alcoholic solution of corrosive sublimate ; here the 
red corpuscles were found to be exceedingly pale, and in many of 
them a nucleus could be seen, which was surrounded more or less 
with protoplasm. The paper, if heterodox according to generally 
received views, is yet well worthy of attention. 
A New Parasitic Chlorochytrium.* — Professor E. Perceval Wright 
describes in vol. xxvi. of the ‘ Transactions of the Royal Irish Aca- 
demy ’ “ a new species of parasitic green Alga belonging to the genus 
Chlorochytrium of Cohn.” In it we have another occurrence of the 
remarkable and extremely rare phenomenon of a chlorophyll-contain- 
ing thallophyte leading a parasitic life. Professor Cohn, of Breslau, 
discovered in 1872 the first chlorophyllaceous endophyte living in 
the intercellular spaces of the parenchyme of Lemna trisulca, and on 
this plant the genus Chlorochytrium was founded. Professor Wright, 
* From the 1 Academy,’ Nov. 17, 1877. 
