DR. MARTIN BARRY ON THE CORPUSCLES OF THE BLOOD. 
599 
neate any of the forms which arise. Sometimes the corpuscles suddenly become in- 
verted ; and I have observed certain of them (fig. 3. (3.) which seemed to be horizon- 
tally revolving. The field of view in some instances is covered with these moving- 
particles. 
14. I have seen these motions of the altered blood-discs when the latter were 
covered, — in some instances with glass, in others with mica, — and also when unco- 
vered ; and I have observed them as late as two hours and a half after death, as in 
fig. S'}-. They soon cease after removal of the fluid to the microscope. The cessa- 
tion is, however, very gradual ; rapid change of form passing into gentle undulations ; 
and these being succeeded by an alternation of rest and motion. 
15. In fig. 4. I have delineated the forms retained in one instance by four of the 
corpuscles in question after their motions had entirely ceased. The pellucid centres, 
such as those seen in the objects of this figure, are often not distinctly visible while 
the motions are proceeding. Sometimes, however, during rapid motion, I have ob- 
served appearances like those in fig. 5 ; the contained pellucid fluid being now central 
(a), then on one side (f 3 ), or divided into several parts (y). 
16. The addition of cold water does not immediately arrest the motions. I could 
not discern any in the remains of the corpuscles after dilute acetic acid had been 
added. 
17 - I have seen these motions of the altered blood- corpuscles, in fluid collected on 
the fimbriated portion of the Fallopian tube, in a Rabbit which had not had connexion 
with the male, but was killed during the rut. 
18. They seem to be attended in some instances with a considerable increase in 
the size of the corpuscle (fig. 3. 
19. Should these facts be thought to confirm the opinion of Hunter, that the 
Blood “ has life within itself,” or “ acquires it in the act of forming organic bodies,” 
because its corpuscles in certain altered states exhibit “ vital action,” still his assertion 
that “ the red globules” are the least important part of the blood, will appear to have 
no just foundation^. 
f The examinations were usually commenced a few minutes after the animal had been killed. 
% Reference is made hy R. Wagner to a statement of Czermac with which I am unacquainted. “ Vital 
motions,” says Wagner, “ such as those which Czermac maintains that he has observed (for instance in Blood 
from the gills of the Proteus), I have never seen ; and this assertion certainly rests on an illusion occasioned 
by the phenomenon which is produced by ciliary motion.” Wagner supposes the motions seen by Czermac 
to have been caused by portions of the gills, the cilia of which set the escaped corpuscles of the Blood in 
motion (Beitrage zur vergl. Phys. Heft II. pp. 17, 18.). 
§ As stated in the London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine for August, 1840, p. 157, my later obser- 
vations induce me to believe that the rapid and incessant changes inform of altered blood-corpuscles, described 
in pars 12 to 18. of this memoir, are caused by contiguous cilia; though I have not yet succeeded in de- 
monstrating the latter. It is certainly a remarkable state of the blood-disc, however, which admits of such 
changes in its form. — November 1840. 
