BLOOD-CORPUSCLES OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 293 Table showing Distribution of Various Sizes of Blood-corpuscles Measured in Parts of an Inch. (By J. B. TREADWELL, M. D.)* * The number of corpuscles includes all found between the fraction opposite to which they are placed and the next succeeding fraction of an inch. (Med.-Legal Jour., vol. xii. No. 4, p. 428.) 294 BLOOD-CORPUSCLES OF MAN AND ANIMALS. Prof. Ewell says: "Many diseases alter the size of the red blood-corpuscles," and he gives the result of careful measurements which he has made in a number of diseases. I take great pleasure in acknowledging the excellent work done in this line by Prof. Ewell, and, for the present discussion, I have compiled from Prof. Ewell's reports the following table: (Med.-Legal Jour., vol. xii. No. 4, p. 429.) As a confirmation of the possibility of restoring dried blood-stains to a condition in which their dimensions can be properly compared with fresh blood-corpuscles, I quote the following table from Prof. Wormley's MicroChemistry of Poisons: In the case of the human blood No. 1, two months old, the deposit was in the form of a thin stain on muslin, and its nature, other than that it was mammalian blood, was unknown at the time of examination. The corpuscles were readily found, and two series of thirty corpuscles were measured. In the human blood two and a half months old, fifty corpuscles ranging from 1 to 5 of an inch, were measured. The blood stain of the dog, No. 6, was prepared by Dr. Frankenberg, and consisted of a single stain so minute as to be barely visible to the naked eye; its nature at the time of the examination was unknown. In the ox blood four and a half years old, the corpuscles were readily obtained, and two closely concordant series of measurements were made. (Med.-Legal Jour., vol. xii. No. 4, p. 431, 432.) BLOOD-CORPUSCLES OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 295 The following tables, quoted by the editor in his article "Blood and Blood Stains" cited above, are given, to complete the present state of knowledge on the subject. The tables of Prof. Wormley as to the average diameter of the red corpuscles of the mammalia may be quoted as of high value. He has made illustrations of the apparent size of red corpuscles, under an amplification of 1150 diameters, expressing the average diameters in vulgar fractions, thus-3250 equals 1-3250 of an inch. This table of illustration shows the corpuscle of man, the dog, mouse, ox, sheep, and goat. |