594 
ME. E. C. BABER OR THE STRUCTURE OF THE THYROID GLAXD. 
subsequent disintegration, has an important bearing both on the physiology and 
pathology of the gland.'" 
I may mention that vesicles containing many red blood-corpuscles have also been 
observed in the thyroid gland of Man (male aged 4 years, and adult Man). 
The red blood-corpuscles in the vesicles have probably hitherto escaped detection in 
the physiological state of the gland, owing to the rapidity with which they become 
melted down, as it were, and thus rendered invisible. From the fact also that the red 
blood-corpuscles in the vessels in these specimens often present no distinct structural 
characters, it is quite possible that red blood-corpuscles may be present in the vesicles 
at the time of death, although they are not distinguishable as such in sections of the 
hardened gland. 
Although the following applies to a pathological state of the gland it is interesting, 
as showing that what I have described in the normal state has been already observed 
in abnormal conditions. In speaking of vascular goitre (“ Gefasskropf ’) Kolliker 
(op. cit., p. 482) says that in this disease, besides a hypersemic condition, there are 
numerous aneurysmal dilatations of the small blood-vessels which Ecker regards as 
arteries and coarse capillaries. By the bursting of these dilatations apoplectic vesicles 
of different sizes are formed, which may become modified in various manners by the 
blood undergoing different changes, &c. 
(c) Colourless blood-corpuscles. —On examining a section of the thyroid gland of 
the Tortoise, it is common to find in a large proportion of the vesicles, situate in the 
homogeneous material, a greater or less number of large round cells (see Plate 68, 
fig. 11). These cells when perfect are round in shape, and present a granular cell- 
substance. They are each provided with a single, round, or oval-shaped nucleus. Both 
the cells and nuclei are larger than those of the epithelium of the vesicle. In this 
respect they differ from the cells described in the vesicles by Permeschko ( vide supra, 
p. 589). Their number in each vesicle often appears to be considerable, for in a section, 
which of course only includes a portion of the contents of a vesicle, it is not uncommon 
to find half-a-dozen or more of them. As they have been found in greater or less 
number in all the glands of the Tortoise, which have been sufficiently well prepared, 
I conclude that their presence in the cavities of the gland-vesicles is a normal pheno¬ 
menon in this animal. 
It was first thought that these cells might be parenchymatous cells, such as I have 
* Amongst other suggestions which occur to one in this connexion, it is impossible to avoid conjectur¬ 
ing, whether rightly or wrongly, that the ancemia which so commonly accompanies certain forms of 
enlargement of the thyroid gland ( goitre ) may be due to an excessive destruction of red blood-corpuscles 
in the manner above-described [see, for instance, Erichsen, ‘ Science and Art of Surgery,’ 5th ed., vol. ii., 
p. 297: “There is a remarkable connexion between tumoi’S of the thyroid gland of this kind (simple 
hypertrophy) and a general anaemic condition of the system. In London nothing is more common to 
find than a certain degree of bronchocele in pale and bloodless women and girls; indeed, so frequent is 
the coincidence that it is impossible not to regard it in the light of cause and effect”]. 
