A manual of physiology : with practical exercises / by G.N. Stewart.

Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A manual of physiology : with practical exercises / by G.N. Stewart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    and differ also in other respects. They may be classified (1) according to the presence or absence of granules in their protoplasm, and the fineness or coarseness of the granules; (2) according to the chemical nature of the dyes with which the granules stain. The most important recent work on this subject is that of Kanthack and Hardy. They find that Ehrlich’s £ neutrophile ’ cells are in reality oxyphile —that is, their granules do not stain with neutral dyes, such as fuchsin or methyl green, but do stain with acid dyes like eosin (Plate I., 2). They classify the wandering cells of the blood into five varieties, as follows : Oxyphile (granules stain- ing with eosin). Basophile (granules stain- ingwith methylene blue). r(i) Coarselygranular (eosino- phile cell of Ehrlich) - 10-n ji in diam. (2) Finely granular ( neutro- phile and amphophile cells „ of Ehrlich) - - - 8-9 n „ | (3) Finely granular (tri-lobed ( nucleus) - - - - 7 // „ (4) Hyaline cells, free from granules (one nucleus, generally spherical) - - 8'5-io m „ (5) Lymphocytes, possessing a single large nucleus with comparatively little proto- plasm around it - 6 /i „ In human blood the finely granular oxyphile cells make up 60 to 80 per cent, of the whole number of leucocytes, the lymphocytes (and hyaline cells) 20 to 30 per cent., and the coarsely granular oxyphile cells less than 5 per cent.; but these proportions are far from being constant. Blood-plates.—When blood is examined immediately after being shed, small colourless bodies (o”5 to 5 ^ in diameter) of various shapes—sometimes flat and of nearly circular outline, sometimes irregular—may be seen. These are the blood-plates or platelets. They can be best studied when the blood is run directly into some fixing solution.* Their significance is unknown ; but they are not produced by the breaking up of other elements of the shed blood, for they have been observed within the freshly excised and therefore still living capillaries—in the mesentery of the guinea-pig and rat (Osier). * Such as Hayem’s solution (sodium chloride, 1 grm.; sodium sulphate, 5 &rm-; mercuric chloride, o‘5 grm. ; water, 200 grm.).