Examination of the blood / by John C. Da Costa.

  • DaCosta, John C., 1871-1919.
Date:
[1906?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Examination of the blood / by John C. Da Costa. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/54 (page 124)
    in pernicious anemia and in the leukemias. Granular basophilia is a pecu- liar basic stippling, fine or coarse, of the stroma of the erythrocyte, best brought out with eosin-methylene-blue mixtures. It is probably a sign of stroma degeneration, affects both erythrocytes and erythroblasts, and is frequently associated with polychromatophilia. Basophilic cells'may be found in many forms of severe anemia, but they are especially common in lead poisoning, in pernicious anemia and leukemia, and in the anemias secondary to sepsis, malignant disease, and the acute infections. Ri7ig Bodies. Rmg-shaped bodies within the erythrocytes and similar extracellular figures, staining both metachromatically and basically, have been described by Cabot=*« and by Strauss and Rohnstein. They closely resemble the nuclear outlines of erythroblasts and suggest nuclear rem- nants. Cabot has found such ring-bodies in lead poisoning, in leukemia, and in pernicious anemia, and I have also noted them in the latter di.sea.se' as well as in the anemia of grave sepsis. A special form of stroma degen- eration known as Schiiffner’s granules is met with in tertian malarial fever, and consists of a coarse red stippling of the parasitiferous erythrocytes in specimens stained with polychrome methylene-blue. The Leukocytes.—The leukocytes or white corpuscles are nucleated colorless cells, most of which are of larger size than the erythrocytes, by which they are outnumbered approximately seven-hundredfold. They appear as irregular spheroidal bodies consisting of a nuclear mass and a protoplasmic body which in some of the cells is quite hyaline and in others crowded with delicate granules. In the adult the normal number of leu- kocytes ranges between 5,000 and 10,000 per cubic millimeter of blood, and averages about 7,500; in the young infant a count of 20,000 or 30,000 is physiologic. Details relating to phagocytosis, pinocytosis, op- sonic action, and other phases of the leukocyte function are dealt with elsewhere. (See p. 174.) Varieties of Leukocytes.—The different varieties of leukocytes are identified microscopically both by their morphology and by the technic of “ color analysis,” first proposed by Ehrlich.^ By this method the various structures of the cells—nucleus, protoplasm, and granules—are selectively colored by staining a dry, fixed blood film with the acid, basic, and neutral anilin dyes, so that their distinctive characteristics may be readily dis- tinguished. In a specimen of normal blood thus stained the following types of leukocytes are demonstrable: Variety op Celi.. Relative Percentage. Small lymphocytes 20 to 30 Large lymphocytes and transitional forms 4 to 8 Polynuclear neutrophiles GO to 75 Eosinophiles 5 to 5 Basophiles 5 Absolute Number Per Cubic Millimeter OF Blood. 1,000 to 3,000 200 to 800 3,000 to 7,500 25 to 500 25 In addition to these six normal varieties of leukocytes, there are three pathologic types which are found in the blood only as the result of some hematopoietic di,sturbance. These cells are the myelocytes, the mast cells, and the so-called stimulation forms.