CELLULAR STRUCTURE OF THE RED BLOOD-CORPUSCLES. 39 
Thus, for example, Professor Austin Flint, jun., in the 
second volume of his great work on the £ Physiology of Man/ 
p. 116, remarks:— <£ The structure of the blood-corpuscles is 
very simple. They are perfectly homogeneous, presenting in 
their normal condition no nuclei or granules, and are not 
provided with an investing membrane. A great deal has 
been said by anatomists concerning the latter point, and 
many are of the opinion that they are cellular in their struc¬ 
ture, being composed of a membrane with viscid semi-fluid 
contents. Without going fully into a discussion of this 
point, it may be stated that few have assumed actually to 
demonstrate this membrane, but they have for the most part 
inferred its existence from the fact of the swelling, and, as 
they term it, bursting on the addition of water ; and parti¬ 
cularly, as it seems to me, to make the blood-corpuscles obey 
the theoretical laws of cell development and nutrition laid 
down by Schwann. Their great elasticity, the persistence 
with which they preserve their bi-concave form, and their 
general appearance, would rather favour the idea that they 
are homogeneous bodies of a definite shape, than that they 
have a cell wall with semi-fluid contents; especially as the 
existence of a membrane has been inferred rather than 
demonstrated/” 
Professor Lionel Beale observes, on p. 169 of his work 
entitled c The Microscope in Practical Medicine 5 —“ The 
red blood-corpuscle of man, and mammalia generally, con¬ 
sists of a mass of soft viscid matter, perhaps of the consist¬ 
ence of treacle, composed of haemato-crystalline. It is, at 
least in certain states, soluble in water, but is only dissolved 
by serum and the fluid part of the blood very slowly. The 
outer part of this matter is of firmer consistence than the in¬ 
terior, especially in the older corpuscles. When the latter 
are placed in water the more soluble matter is dissolved, 
leaving the harder external portion.” Dr. Beale further 
recounts sundry considerations which, he says, prove conclu¬ 
sively “ that the red blood-corpuscle is not a cell.” 
The distinguished French physiologist. Professor Ch. 
Robin, supports similar views, asserting, on p. 697 of ‘ Dic- 
tionnaire de Medecine, de Chirurgie, &c/*—“ The red blood- 
corpuscles are constituted of a homogeneous mass of globulin 
which is imbibed by or united molecule by molecule to the 
colouring matter, or haemhtosine, and a certain quantity of 
fat and saline materials. In mammals, the whole mass is 
homogeneous, and without any nucleus after the period when 
the human embryo, for example, attains a length of about an 
* E. Littre et Ch. Robin, Paris, 1865. 
