202 
DR. MARTIN BARRY ON THE CORPUSCLES OF THE BLOOD. 
where none of the colouring- matter was removed, I am unable to explain the cause 
of the differences in our observations. 
53. A very superficial examination of the drawings, will suffice to discover the 
principal differences here referred to. It will be seen that the nucleus of the blood- 
corpuscle — usually considered, I believe, as a single object — is represented by me as 
composed, in some instances, of two, three, or even many parts ; these having a 
constant and determinate form. The substance surrounding the nucleus is, I think, 
even by the latest observers, regarded simply as “ the red colouring matter,” — 
forming the contents of what has been denominated the blood-cell. I find it not 
uncommon to be able to distinguish in this substance a great number of discs or 
cell-like objects ; and, what is equally remarkable, to discern (in certain states of 
the corpuscle) an orifice in the delicate membrane by which this substance is sur- 
rounded. But it is not so much these facts to which I ask attention, as certain 
conclusions which they, with others, have enabled me to form. 
54. In another memoir, also presented to the Royal Society^, I was under the 
necessity of expressing opinions no less differing from those of very distinguished 
physiologists, on a subject of the first importance ; affecting, as it does, every tissue 
of which organized beings are composed — the physiology of “ cells.” Schleiden 
had stated, that, after giving origin to the membrane of its cell, the nucleus has per- 
formed its chief office ; and that, when it does not continue at the surface of the cell, 
the nucleus is “ cast off as a useless member, and absorbed^.” Schwann had said, 
that, with the exception of fat-giobules having in some instances, in fat-cells, been 
seen to arise out of it, he had never observed anything whatever to be produced by the 
nucleus of the cell§. My observations, on the contrary, showed the nucleus to have 
a higher office to perform than that of giving origin simply to the membrane of a 
cell ; that, instead of being “ cast off as useless, and absorbed,” the nucleus is the 
source of new substance, — a centre for the origin, not only of the transitory contents 
of its own cell (“ Zelleninhalt” of German authors), but also of the two or three prin- 
cipal and last formed cells destined to succeed that cell ; and, in fact, that by far 
the greater portion of the nucleus, instead of existing anterior to the formation of 
the cell, arises within its cavity. — A separation of the nucleus into two or three parts, 
where previously observed — namely, in the globule of pus and mucus — had been 
attributed by Guterbock, Henle, and others, to a chemical reagent used in the exa- 
mination — acetic acid || . But, we saw that neither acetic acid nor any other foreign 
t Researches in Embryology. Third Series : A Contribution to the Physiology of Cells. Philosophical 
Transactions, 1840, Part If. p. 5 ‘2 9. 
\ Schleiden, Beitrage zur Phytogenesis. Muller’s Archiv, 1838, Heft II. p. 146. 
§ Mikroskopische Untersuchungen iiber die Uebereinstimmung in der Struktur und dem Wachsthum der 
Thiere und Pflanzen, 1838-9, p. 54. 
|| Henle, Hufeland’s Journal, Mai 1838, p. 62, pi. i. fig. 9-12. 
