ANATOMY OF THE HOUSE. 
RED PARTICLES. 
It has been observed that, by repeated ablution, the crassamen- 
tum may be deprived of its red colour, and thereby converted 
into fibrin alone: the water that has been employed for this pur¬ 
pose will be found to be rendered red —bloody,—as it is termed ; 
an effect arising from the commixture with it of the part of the 
crassamentum now under our consideration, viz. the red parti¬ 
cles. The colour of the blood is owing to the presence of innume¬ 
rable particles or globules , which are uniformly diffused through 
it in the fluid state; and, in the coagulated, become entangled 
within the substance of the fibrin. I have already remarked, 
however, that blood is not red in all animals, nor even in every 
part of the same animal; still (according to Hewson) this white 
or colourless blood possesses globules similar in form and struc¬ 
ture to the coloured ones. The same author likewise informs us, 
that the globules are of different magnitude in different ani¬ 
mals, but that their volume bears no sort of proportion to the 
size of the animal; they being as large in the mouse and cat 
as in the ass and ox, larger than either in birds, and largest of 
all in the skate. 
In making these observations, however, I should remark that 
no part of the body has afforded a wider field for speculation than 
these red globules. Being so very minute as only to be discover¬ 
able at all through a microscope, their shape and magnitude have 
become variously reported on according to the varying circum¬ 
stances under which these microscopic examinations have been 
conducted : to one they have appeared in the form of perfect 
spheres; to another, as rings; to a third, as flattened vesicles. 
Dr. Young (whose account is recent, and pretty nearly coincides 
with that of Hewson) found the globules in the skate to resemble 
an almond in form, only to be less pointed and somewhat flat¬ 
tened, and consisting of an external envelope containing a central 
nucleus; as represented here below. 
We are further informed by experimenters, that the colouring 
matter of the globule resides principally or entirely in its external 
covering, the central nucleus itself being without colour; and, 
also, that it is only the coloured envelope which is soluble in 
water; the nucleus still retaining its form while floating, and 
being obtainable in an entire and separate state. 
Their magnitude has given rise to as much latitude of opinion 
