Report of the Microscopical Society of London.
Read, a paper from William Addison, Esq., of Great Malvern, on "the colourless corpuscles of the blood, the buffy coat, and inflammatory diseases." The author com- mences by stating, that when a recently drawn drop of blood is placed between two slips of glass, and examined under the microscope, two very distinct kinds of corpus- cles may at all times be distinguished, the one being red and the other colourless. Of these the most remarkable are the last: these, when subjected to pressure, retain then- circular outline, and appear to be harder or of a firmer consistence than the others. If the drop of blood be taken from an inflamed surface, as a pimple, or the base of a boil, they are found to be very abundant; and in blood taken from the skin of a patient in scarlet fever, or from the spots of any cutaneous disease, they are not only remarkably numerous and conspicuous, but also vary very considerably in size, evidently having molecules or a molecular base in their interior. These colourless corpuscles are also obtained very abundantly from the fluid, or liquor sanguinis, at the surface of buffy blood before the fibrine coagulates, mingled with immense multitudes of isolated or free molecules and granules. From various observations he supposed the elements of the blood to consist of, — 1. The red corpuscles. 2. The colourless corpuscles. 3. Molecules and granules in the interior of the colourless corpuscles. 4. Free molecules. 5. The fibrous fibrillse. And his researches have led him to these conclusions : — 1. That the colourless blood-corpuscle is the central portion of the red corpuscle. 2. That all the different forms of the pus-corpuscle, exudation-cells, and fibrinous glo- bules, are altered colourless blood- corpuscles. And 3. That all the various forms of epithelial cells likewise originate from them, either by a conversion or transformation of the entire corpuscles into these cells, or by the growth of their molecules. He went on to state that these colourless corpuscles appear to enter very largely into the compo- sition of all membrane, contributing, during the process of active nutrition, to form the tissues, and they are also subsequently evolved as pus globules, exudation-cells, or epithelium ; and that the red cells or globules in a state of health, take no part either in normal or abnormal nutrition ; that is, in such cases they do not combine with or pass into the tissue. When therefore the process of secretion from some epithelial sur- face in one or more organs is in any way disturbed, the consequence is that these co- lourless cells accumulate in the blood, and when blood in this state is drawn, the cells from various causes burst, discharging their contents, which consist of molecules and a fibre forming plasma, which last, in a short time, rises to the surface, carrying with it the molecules and other colourless cells which may not have burst, thus pro- ducing that more or less tough elastic tissue known by the name of the buffy coat of the blood. Inflammation, therefore, he considers as occurring whenever the colourless blood-cells congregate in the tissues of any organ so as to interfere with its normal function; and so long as this disturbance is confined to these cells, what is termed chronic inflammation is the result; but should it extend so as to interfere with the free circulation of the red corpuscles, then all the phenomena of active inflammation ensue. The author also pointed out that the phenomena presented by scarletina ac- cord perfectly with his views ; and stated certain conclusions to which his observations had led him in the treatment of that disease. The concluding part of the paper con- sisted of observations explanatory of this view of the subject, and the paper was illus- trated by several drawings of the colourless blood-corpuscles in the various states therein described. The Society afterwards adjourned until the 18th of October next. — J.W.
