Medical Officers of the Army of India.
17
and whilst the fluid is in a state of constant movement, it is clear that softened
and partially dissolved erythrocytes must frequently be liable to come into
contact with one another, and, having done so, to cohere in consequence of
their abnormal consistence. The difference in the two cases is clearly owing
to the fact that there is nothing specially tending to bring the dissolving
erythrocytes into contact with one another where the blood is at rest, whereas,
in cases in which it is in continuous movement, facilities for contact must
necessarily be present. Where the circulatory movement, is almost immediately
arrested by the introduction of large quantities of venom, the opportunities for
the occurrence of contact will be reduced to a minimum, and the chances in
favour of contact, and the consequent formation and growth of aggregates of
erythrocytes, must go on increasing in direct ratio to the length of time elapsing
between the period at which the venom was introduced and that at which the
arrest of circulation took place.
In those cases in which prolonged chronic intoxication had preceded the
removal of the blood from the body, the specimens were characterised, not
merely by the presence of masses of free or partially freed nuclei, but also by
the presence of very great numbers of eosinophil corpuscles. Not only were such
corpuscles extremely abundant, but, as a rule, they were so greatly engorged with
deeply coloured particles that the latter, until freed by rupture of the parent
protoplast, in most cases presented the appearance- of a solid, homogeneous
mass in close contact with two or three peripherally situated nuclei. (Plate I, figs.
4 ,
5 ) .
T h e f a c t t h a t s u c h a p h e n o m e n o n s h o u l d p r e s e n t i t s e l f i n a s s o c i a t i o n
with the unequivocal occurrence of prolonged and extensive processes of
solution of erythrocytes and consequent liberation of hæmoglobin into the liquor
sanguinis is certainly in favour of the views of those who regard the particles con-
tained within eosinophil corpuscles as, partially at all events, of hæmoglobic origin.
That they are mere concretions of hæmoglobin, as some have maintained, is,
however, clearly disproved by the fact that corpuscles may sometimes be met
with containing particles of perfectly characteristic outline, but devoid of any
special affinity for eosin, and, consequently remaining uncoloured after treatment
with the latter. What the data would appear to indicate is that the particles are
not mere concretions of hæmoglobin, but that it is only when saturated with the
latter that they acquire a special affinity for eosin. That hæmoglobin has a
great affinity for eosin is clearly demonstrated by the action of the stain on the
bodies of erythrocytes or fluids containing the products of erythrocytic solution,
so that, when we find an exceptional profusion of deeply stained eosinophil
corpuscles coinciding with the occurrence of extensive solution of erythrocytes
and liberation of hæmoglobin, it appears to be only reasonable to assume that
a causal nexus exists between the two phenomena.
The degree to which the experiments yielded results indicative of the
p r e s e n c e o f
a p p r e c i a b l e r e d u c t i o n i n t h e r e s p i r a t o r y p r o p e r t y o f t h e b l o o d v a r i e d
D