| RefNo | AP/25/18/1 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Unpublished manuscript, 'Observations on the blood-corpuscles, particularly with reference to opinions expressed and conclusions drawn in papers "On the corpuscles of the blood" and "On fibre", recently published in the Philosophical Transactions' by T [Thomas] Wharton Jones |
| Date | November 1842 |
| Description | Jones points out what he considers to be important errors in a series of papers by Dr. Martin Barry. He alleges that Dr. Barry has generally confounded the colourless corpuscles contained in the blood with the red corpuscles of the same fluid. He believes the red corpuscles each consist of a vesicle or cell with thick walls, but in a collapsed and flattened state, appearing under the microscope as a broad circumferential ring. The colourless corpuscles, on the other hand, are of a globular shape, strongly refractive of light, and granulated on their surface, and are of less specific gravity and of somewhat larger size than the red corpuscles. Jones quotes various passages from Dr. Barry’s papers in proof of his assertions. He regards as wholly erroneous the notion which Dr. Barry entertains that a fibre exists in the interior of the corpuscle; and that these fibres, after their escape from thence, constitute the fibres which are formed by the consolidation of the fibrin of the liquor sanguinis. The beaded aspect presented by the double contour of the thick wall of the red corpuscle when it has been acted upon either by mechanical causes or by chemical reagents, of which the effect is to corrugate the edge, and to bend it alternately in opposite directions, has, in Jones' opinion, given rise to the illusive appearance of an internal, annular fibre. The appearance of flask-like vesicles presented by some of the red corpuscles, with the alleged fibre protruding from their neck, Jones ascribes altogether to the effects of decomposition, which has altered the mechanical properties of the corpuscle, and allowed it to be drawn out, like any other viscid matter, into a thread.
Includes one page of figures separate to the text. Annotations in pencil and ink throughout. Marked on back as 'Archives 9 March 1843 S H C [Samuel Hunter Christie]'.
Subject: Physiology / Haematology
Received 10 November 1842.
Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 4 of Abstracts of the Papers Printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London [later Proceedings of the Royal Society] as 'Observations on the blood-corpuscles, particularly with reference to opinions expressed and conclusions drawn in papers ‘on the corpuscles of the blood,’ and ‘on fibre,’ recently published in the Philosophical Transactions'. |
| Extent | 36p |
| Format | Manuscript |
| PhysicalDescription | Ink on paper |
| AccessStatus | Open |
| RelatedMaterial | DOI: 10.1098/rspl.1837.0195 |
| DOI: 10.1098/rstl.1840.0025 |
| DOI: 10.1098/rstl.1842.0008 |
| DOI: 10.1098/rspl.1837.0209 |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA3182 | Jones; Thomas Wharton (1808 - 1891) | 1808 - 1891 |
| NA6989 | Barry; Martin (1802 - 1855) | 1802 - 1855 |