On the identity of the white corpuscles of the blood with the salivary, pus, and mucous corpuscles / by Joseph G. Richardson.

  • Richardson, Joseph Gibbons, 1836-1886.
Date:
[between 1860 and 1869?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the identity of the white corpuscles of the blood with the salivary, pus, and mucous corpuscles / by Joseph G. Richardson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    pairs, and having adapted to it a ^^th. inch objective (made by Mr. William Wales, of Fort Lee, J.), it has accom- plished the work below described. The salivary corpuscles examined under a power of eleven hundred diameters present the appearance of perfect spheres, varying from the j^^^^tla to the 55^0(5*^ of an inch in diameter, each having a very transparent but beautifully defined cell- wall of exceeding tenuity, which incloses from one to four almost equally transparent nuclei of a circular or oval form, whose diameters range from goVijth to 4^'^oth of an inch. These nuclei are situated sometimes centrally but more commonly near one side of the corpuscle, and the cavity be- tween the margin and the cell-wall is generally tilled with from 25 to 50 molecules, not more than ^■^^■^oth. of an inch in diameter, whose characteristic is that of constant and rapid motion. Some of these molecules seem to be elongated into an oval or hour-glass form, but the activity of their movements renders it difficult to ascertain this with pre- cision. In my observations these corpuscles have appeared to enlarge and become flattened, from the pressure of the glass cover, as the stratum of liquid beneath became thinner from marginal desiccation, so that usually in the course of an hour or so they burst, and discharge about one-fourth of their contents, when two, three, or more of the molecules swim away, continuing their revolving movements until they pass out of view; the other granules outside and those re- maining within the cell become in a very few seconds entirely stationary. If a solution of aniline red, of the strength of one grain to the ounce of distilled water, be allowed to pene- trate at the margin of the cover, the nuclei of the salivary corpuscle are readily stained of a bright crimson, and are thus exhibited with beautiful distinctness; the dye appears, however, to exert an immediate influence upon the move- ment of the molecules, as I have rarely been able to And cells in which they continued to move after the nuclei became at all colored. In examining some urine, obtained on the 8th of August, 1868, near my late residence, in Western New York, from