On some Appearances of the Red Blood-Corpuscles of Man and other Vertebrata

A solution of picric acid shows the structure of the nucleus well, and with this permanent preparations may be made. As far as I am aware, the intimate structure of the nucleus of the red blood-corpuscle has not been described, excepting by Dr. Schmidt, in the blood of Amphiuma¹ and some other animals. He describes and figures the nucleus as granular, and invests the corpuscle itself with a membrane, which, whatever it may be in the case of Amphiuma, appears certainly not to be so in other animals; its existence seems to be clearly incompatible with the production of the above-described processes, as much as with the well-known experiment of Dr. Beale, of breaking up by pressure with the point of a needle, on the covering-glass, a red corpuscle into several small droplets. In frog’s blood, too, its absence seems clearly demonstrated by treating it in the cold with a 5 per cent, solution of ammon. chromate, when the corpuscles are at first little altered in appearance, excepting that the nucleus becomes pale and distinct. After some minutes protuberances appear on different parts of the periphery of the corpuscle; some of these are then extended, and form long processes, two or three times the diameter of the corpuscle, of very appreciable thickness, and distinctly coloured; the size of some of these amounts to a material portion of the corpuscle, the membrane of which, if it existed, must be ruptured by their protrusion, and would be clearly apparent under an amplification of 1000 diameters or upwards, but nothing of the kind can be seen. The processes formed in this case are frequently retracted again completely, even the largest of them, and the appearances are most interesting and instructive; after a very short time the processes disappear, are retracted or detached; the corpuscles then become circular and colourless. Under the influence of this reagent the corpuscles seem to become more plastic than normally, in the same manner as when subjected to heat.

As above-mentioned, I found that these appearances were first recorded by Dr. William Addison, in 1861 (loc. cit.). He describes the action of acids and alkalis, of various salts, and other reagents upon the blood. He obtained the processes in question most readily by treating the blood upon the slide with sherry wine, either by itself or with the addition of different salts, and found that neither quinine, morphia, nor strychnine, added to the preparation, nor even the vegetable alkaloids in large proportions, prevented their appearance, but that a very small proportion of bichloride of mercury did so effectually. Dr. Addison gives a plate with the different forms of the processes admirably figured, and his paper forms a very complete account of them.

In 1863 Klebs,¹ observing the blood of dead animals warmed to bodily temperature, observed points projecting from the surface of the red corpuscles, the larger of which often divided into two parts, the corpuscles themselves becoming distorted. The description is very meagre, and the appearances may be little more than the prickly, or as it has been termed the hedgehog form of the corpuscles.

In the same year Rindfleisch² published some experimental observations on the blood. He found that in extravasated blood of the frog the red corpuscles became round, and a portion of their contents, as he describes it, protruded, forming filamentous processes, or a rosary of red-coloured droplets, on the surface of the corpuscles; these he considers are protruded through pores or other openings in the cell-wall, the droplets of which they consist being held together by a viscid substance. He further states that these appearances may also be produced by a concentrated solution of urea.

The first mention of the effect of urea on the red bloodcorpuscles which I have seen is by Dr. T. L. Huenefeld, in a work published in 1840,³ in which he describes the action of a great number of reagents, and states that a solution of pure urea does not seem to have much effect on the red blood-corpuscles of man or the pig, beyond that it dissolves out the colouring matter very quickly, leaving only portions of the hull and the nucleus visible.

In 1864, Dr. Beale⁴ describes and figures the changes of form in the red blood-corpuscles of man from heat, the processes and appearances presented, though more varied than those described above, are obviously of the same character. The paper was written in support of the author’s theory of formed and living matter. In the same year Preyer⁵ describes the appearances in extravasated blood of the frog on the warm stage. Long processes are formed, and globules which become detached and sometimes reunite with the parent corpuscle. He remarks that the action of urea will produce similar appearances, which only differ slightly in colour, and makes the observation, that in the blood of frogs at breeding time, nuclei evidently dividing are found; these he figures. The processes above described he also finds in the blood of frogs on the warm stage without any reagent.

The same appearances caused by heat are next described by Max Schultz¹ He found that on the warm stage of the microscope the changes of form commenced first at 52° C. in the blood of man and various mammals, on reaching which temperature the corpuscles immediately change and break up into many parts of various sizes, and are dispersed, dancing through the serum in lively motion, or throw out filaments of various lengths and form, which too become detached and move about in the surrounding medium, like Vibrios. Here also a plate is given, the representations in which agree exactly with the appearances above described as caused by the action of reagents, both on the warm stage and in the cold. No one can doubt the phenomena being exactly the same.

In 1871, Professor E. Bay Lankester, in an article upon the structure of the red blood-corpuscles,² describing the effect of various reagents upon them, records the pseudopodial-like processes which occur in the blood of the frog on treatment by ammonia gas, and the fluidity which it seems to occasion in the human red corpuscles, resulting in the production of long threads or processes from the corpuscles, and the separation of minute particles from them. Drawings are given of these, which likewise agree exactly with the appearances before described.

Quite recently two papers describing these appearances in the red blood-corpuscles have appeared, the one is by Dr. Rudolph Arndt,³ who first endeavours to show that the nucleus which occurs in the red blood-corpuscles of Fish, Amphibia, and some other Vertebrata, is an artificial production caused by the action of reagents or pathological changes, which has no existence normally, though when formed it is an independent contractile body, which shows amoeboid movements (!); and that consequently there is no integral difference between the ovoid red blood-corpuscles of the Amphibia, &c., and the round corpuscles of man and other mammalia, which do not usually show any nucleus, though he considers that by the action of reagents or certain changed conditions, they too show nuclei of the same nature as those of the ovoid red corpuscles, mere aggregations of their protoplasmic constituents, as shown by Bœtticher,⁴ who treated them with alcohol and acetic acid, or with a solution of bichloride of mercury in alcohol; the appearances so induced, however, if carefully regarded, can never be mistaken for identical with the nuclei of the ovoid red corpuscles; the latter, as already mentioned, in some cases showing very distinctly, an elaborate structure, a network of internuclear fibres, some of them perforating the limiting membrane, which is very distinct, and its appearance quite inconsistent with its being merely a pathological change as asserted by the author; moreover, the appearances caused by treatment after Bcetticher’s methods have been clearly and fully explained, and accounted for in a paper in a subsequent number of the same journal.¹ In some cases, too, the nuclei may be seen clearly dividing, though as my own observations were made chiefly upon summer and autumn frogs these instances were few. Breyer, however,² describes and figures this division of the nucleus in the blood of frogs during the breeding season. After discussing the question of the contractility of the red corpuscles, and whether they possess a cell wall, in the proper sense of the term, the author describes the appearances which are the immediate subject of this paper. Following Preyer, he first examined extravasated frogs’ blood, and found numerous processes, short points, and long straight filaments, in short, exactly the appearances above described; and mentions their production similarly by the action of urea and of heat. Also that similar processes are thrown out in cases of fever, especially typhus; and that with a bodily temperature of 39-40° C., they occur at the temperature of the chamber; and in recurrent fever, as first described by Haidenreich in 1871, long filamentous processes of great length, extending over the whole field of the microscope, appear. These have been regarded as independent organisms, a form of Bacteria, and named Spirochœtœ Obermeieri, or llecurrentis, as which they are described by Cohn.³ These the author has observed sometimes to coalesce again with the parent corpuscle, and disappear. On this account he regards them as portions of the protoplasm of the corpuscle, which have become detached and endowed with independent vitality and spontaneous movement, but are not mere parasites. This view appears to be well founded, and supported by the circumstance, previously recorded, of their intermittent appearance in the blood, and that when present in vast numbers under the microscope, they again shortly all disappear; and still further, by the fact stated by Cohn (loc. cit.), that they are dissolved by potash, which is contrary to the properties of all known Bacteria, the resistance of which to alkalis and acids is regarded as their chief and most reliable characteristic. That they are portions of the protoplasmic substances of the corpuscle appears to be evident; as such they would possess contractility as long as they retained the vital properties of protoplasm, though in such attenuated filaments, the movements which they exhibit may be merely physical, the result of the currents which are never absent from a preparation of blood under the microscope, unless it be sealed, or until coagulation occur.

The next and latest description of these processes is in an excellent paper by Gaule,¹ which describes their appearances in defi-brinated frogs’ blood, treated on the warm stage at a temperature of 30° to 32° C. with a solution sod. chor. 0·4 to 0·8 per cent.; the method here adoped for defibrinating the blood was by shaking it up sharply in a mixing glass with salt solution and a little mercury, which subsides and carries the fibrin with it; a drop of the supernatant fluid is then placed on the warm stage, treated with more salt solution, and sealed. The author describes the formation of these processes from the large majority of the corpuscles; a staff-shaped body first appears in which some bright granules or striæ are visible, this elongates, becomes detached, pointed at both ends, and commencing a spiral movement, wriggles about over the field of view; coming in contact with other blood-corpuscles it adheres to them, dragging them after it, strongly resembling in appearance minute worms, but, as the author observes, in outward appearance only, and not in their real nature. In length these bodies equal about half the diameter of a red blood-corpuscle, but their character varies with circumstances, the vigour of the frog, the strength of the solution, &c. The author concludes that these are processes evolved from the constituent protoplasm, the stroma of the corpuscle. I can confirm the author’s results in all respects. I have not found it necessary to defibrinate the blood to obtain these appearances, though to do so, simply whipping it is sufficient; nor is it necessary to seal the preparation, though this, by preventing evaporation, may somewhat prolong their duration.

Similar appearances have been described in other protoplasmic bodies, not only in the white blood-corpuscles, but in Amœbæ (Protozoa) too,² under the action of dilute salt solution; in some instances filamentous, or nodular processes, long pseudopodia, rosaries, or detached particles, were formed as in the case of the red blood-corpuscles; these appearances occurred during vitality, and on treatment with plain water the organisms regained their normal appearance and movement.

Thus it will be seen that these appearances have been observed and described by many during the last twenty years; that they are one and all of essentially the same character, there can be no doubt; it appears to me—that is, that they are essentially processes of the constituent protoplasm of the red corpuscles, a phenomenon of its contractility. Many who have observed and described the appearances seem to have been unaware that they had previously been described by others, as I was myself when first I noticed them; for this reason I have thought it would be useful to collate and record the observations already made upon this subject. The appearances are remarkable and highly interesting, as affording evidence of the constitution of the red corpuscles; no one, I think, after watching their evolution as above described, more especially under the action of ammonium chromate, can have any doubt as to their true nature.