Microscopical Society of Victoria. 
7 
(10.) It will be seen by reference to the papers already 
published that the major portion of this essay is contained in 
them ; but in justice to the subject, and to the present Journal, I 
have undertaken to experiment anew, and have also extended my 
observations to the action of other agents, and have recast all my 
materials and collected and condensed them into one whole, and 
have also re figured and added to the former microscopical appear¬ 
ances. All the experiments adduced can be readily undertaken 
by a fair working mieroscopist, and will, I am certain, if no other 
result be obtained, yield good practical training as a reward, 
similar to the manipulation of diatoms, an investigation which 
leads to skill in the use of the microscope and its accessories, and 
is a pursuit which should not be subjected to such wholesale 
reprobation as insisted on by some observers. 
(11.) Being aware that great changes in the views regarding 
cells and cell-formation have taken place, and that the white 
corpuscle of the blood is not regarded now as a cell proper, with a 
nucleus, I wish to explain that in using the term cell and cell 
wall in considering the structure of the blood, I do so only with a 
view to mark out and establish appearances, without involving the 
subject in any question of the cell theory; and while doing this 1 
am quite willing to accept the term that the white corpuscle is 
not a nucleated cell, if one does not go so far as to deny what 
appears self-evident, that there is a nucleus present, and a limiting 
protoplasm, and between these an interspace filled with some 
fluid, but not, in all probability, of a gaseous nature, as refraction 
does not indicate such a condition. 
(12.) But we have not done with all the changes which can be 
noticed as occurring in the blood under the chemical substances 
which have been quoted, viz., prussic acid and cupreate of 
ammonia. I have noticed that whenever a distinct blue re-action 
follows the application of prussic acid to the blood, a further and 
a more interesting change takes place. The fluid under the 
microscope should be carefully searched for the presence of slarch- 
like bodies, corpuscles assuming the form and appearance of 
starch grains, exhibiting at times a concentric arrangement of the 
interior, with a rounded or reniform shape. These bodies assume 
a purple and then a black tint under iodine re-action, and also 
exhibit a cruciform polariscopic appearance. If carefully looked 
