ABSTRACT
“ Medicine has arrived at such a stage that Microscopical Anatomy appears to form its foundation, as much as the anatomy of the organs and systems; and a thorough study of Physiology and Pathological Anatomy is impossible without an exact knowledge of the most minute formal elements. It becomes then the duty of those who cultivate this field of science not only to communicate their observations to their fellow-workers and to those who are more profoundly acquainted with medicine, but to enable all those who are concerned with the study of Man, and especially studentsand practitioners, to profit thereby. The present work seeks to perform this task by giving as condensed as possible a view of the relations of the elementary parts of the body and of the more minute structure of the organs; avoiding all polemical discussions, with the exception of a few of the more important points as yet sub judice, and leaving the history of the science completely in the background; but, on the other hand, entering as fully as possible into those points which bear upon Physiology, Pathological Anatomy, and Comparative Histology.”
Such is Professor Kolliker’s preface to the very admirable work in which he exhibits the result of his manifold and long-continued microscopical researches into the structure of the human body. Nor has Professor Kolliker’s performance fallen short of these his professed intentions. Any one who will carefully study the work will, we think, agree with us, that since the publication of Henle’s ‘Allgemeine Anatomie,’ ten years ago, no histological manual has appeared in any country* at all comparable with it for exact research in matters of detail, for completeness as a whole, for breadth of view, and last, but by no means least, for the conscientious care with which the author has in almost every case made himself acquainted with the literature of his subject. We mention this good quality particularly, because we have been surprised to meet with one or two defects, arising, as we think, from the Professor’s having overlooked good work performed on this side of the Channel. The chapter on the Blood, pp. 565-584, for instance, seems to us to be the weakest in the book; and we can hardly think it would have been so, had Professor Kölliker sufficiently studied the observations, published in this country so long ago as 1845, by Mr. Wharton Jones, * in a memoir which we consider to be one of the most important contributions ever made to our knowledge of this subject.
We have unfortunately no space to enter into a detailed criticism, but we must remark that Wharton Jones has here demonstrated (958) that the “ stellate lymph corpuscles,’’ figured by Köolliker (fig. 290), are formed by a peculiar shooting out of the wall of the lymph corpuscle, and not by any “exit of their contents.” (Kölliker, note, p. 565.) Professor Kölliker is one of those who have paid most attention to the phenomena of contraction presented by simple cell membranes, but he has forgotten to mention one of its most extraordinary and earliest discovered instances—that Amoeba-like motion of the “ colourless corpuscle,” described by Wharton Jones, in the blood of the skate, frog, &c. floc, cit., § 9-24), and quite readily visible by any one who looks carefully after it even in the human “ colourless corpuscle.”
There is yet a process which Professor Kölliker takes pretty much for granted—we refer to a supposed natural division of the nucleus of the colourless corpuscle, and to the consequent occurrence of multiple and biscuit-shaped nuclei; but any belief in which, must, we think, be greatly shaken by the perusal of §§ 29-30, 63-66, of Wharton Jones’s Memoir, and by the repetition of his experiments (we have often repeated them in man) be completely destroyed. Certain it is, that the more gradually and carefully the re-agent is applied, the more certain is one to find the colourless corpuscles of the blood with only circular nuclei, while, if it be applied suddenly and concentrated, one is almost equally certain to find them with nuclei of every irregularity of shape, from biscuit-shaped to mulberry-shaped.
Finally, considering that “ the origin of the blood corpuscles after birth and in the adult ” is “ one of the most obscure portions of the history of the blood-cell ” (Kölliker, p. 581),we think that the very strong arguments, not to say the complete demonstration, contained in the memoir so often referred to, that the blood corpuscle is the free nucleus of the “ colourless corpuscle,” deserved grave consideration, and, at any rate, should not have been passed over in silence. Professor Kölliker’s own view, that the red corpuscles are the small lymph corpuscles (Chylus Körperchen), which have lost their nucleus and become coloured, is, we think, totally untenable.
We regret to have had to find any fault with a work which is, in so many respects, faultless. It is only our sense of the great influence it is likely to have which has compelled us to do such violence to our feelings of gratitude towards its author.
Our readers will think we have forgotten the admirable work of Todd and Bowman; but it has never been completed.
Philosophical Transactions, 1846, Part II., “ The Blood Corpuscle considered in its different Phases of Development in the Animal Series. ”
