Blood cell

“ Whatever be the ancestral cell from which these cells spring, it is in the bone marrow that we find a differentiation into the various marrow cells from which are developed the mature corpuscles that pass from the marrow into the blood circulation. The healthy bone marrow reacts with remarkable rapidity to the demand for more blood cells which may be required by the organism; its reactions and variations in disease are very striking. ”

“ The function of the white blood cells is to wander around and if they discover any stray bacteria, whose presence is undesirable, it is their duty to get rid of it as quickly as possible. The white blood cell may therefore be likened to a detective whose duty it is to arrest any suspicious character who comes into the city. When a white blood cell discovers a strange microbe it immediately surrounds and encloses it within itself, just as your hand can enclose any small object, such as a cent or a dime. ”

“ Look Out For the Blood Cells and the Body Will Take Care of Itself
You can't expect to be well, or to ever accomplish much in the world if
the blood and nerve cells are lacking strength and vitality. As the
blood races through your body--head and brain, every little cell should
be brim full of life and power. Then you feel the vim and "go" that will
make you a power among your fellow men. No nervousness, no indecision,
no signs of the weakling if you use Dr. Hoag's
CELL TISSUE TONIC
The great nerve and tissue builder. ”

“ Is a cell phagocyte or macrophage which contains five red blood corpuscles.
All life in the tissues depends upon the circulation of the blood. There is definite relation between the activity of cells and the blood supply; a part, for instance, which is in active function receives a greater supply of blood by means of dilatation of the arteries which supply it. If the body be exactly balanced longitudinally on a platform, reading or any exercise of the brain causes the head end to sink owing to the relatively greater amount of blood which the brain receives when in active function. ”

“ Just as under certain conditions fat-cells may completely lose their contents without dying, so the bone-marrow cell, if the blood fails to yield to it the necessary substances, may occasionally be unable to produce more neutrophil granules. ”

“ Another most important class in the cell-community [Pg 25] is the great group of the blood-corpuscles, which in some respects appear to maintain their independence and freedom to a greater degree than almost any other class which can be found in the body. While nearly all other cells have become packed or felted together so as to form a fixed and solid tissue, these still remain entirely free and unattached. ”

“ Since this time the phenomenon has been observed with a great variety of cells other than red blood corpuscles and bacteria—leukocytes, spermatozoa, cells from liver, kidney, brain, epithelia, etc., protozoa, and many vegetable cells.
It is therefore a well-established fact that the proper injection of an animal with almost any cell foreign to it will lead to the blood of the animal injected acquiring the power to injure or destroy cells of the same kind as those introduced. ”

“ The liquor sanguinis constitutes fully 66 per cent. of the volume of the blood. It is albuminous in nature and contains a small amount of coloring matter of a fatty nature. It holds in solution three proteids—fibrinogen, serum globulin, and serum albumin.
Second, the organized parts, or the cellular structure (Fig. 74, Nos. 1 to 21) . The cells float in the plasma and consist of three groups: the erythrocytes, or red blood cells, the leucocytes, or white blood cells, and the thrombocytes. ”

“ Extensive observations made on wounded soldiers have shown that the number of red blood cells may rise even to 8,000,000 per cmm. in the capillary blood, while the number in the venous blood remains at 5,500,000 or less. This concentration of the red cells is gradual and progressive, and will by itself account for a large part of the loss of volume, since normally the bulk of the blood is made up of corpuscles and plasma in approximately equal parts. ”

“ This takes place in the red bone-marrow, where special cells are provided for their continuous production. In embryonic life their formation is effected in another way. Certain mesodermic cells, resembling those of the connective tissue, collect masses of haemoglobin, and from these elaborate red blood corpuscles which thus come to lie in the fluid part of the cell. By a canalization of the branches of these cells which unite with branches of other cells the precursors of the blood capillaries are formed. ”

“ Very thin are the walls of the air-cell, so thin that the blood in the capillary is separated from the air in the air-cell by the thinnest possible sheet of finest membrane. As the dark purple blood rushes through the crowded network, its carbonic acid escapes through this thin membrane, from the blood into the air, and oxygen slips from the air into the blood. ”

“ It constitutes about 4% of all the leucocytes and is highly amoeboid and phagocytic.
5. The Basophile Cell.—This possesses a spherical nucleus and the protoplasm contains a small number of granules staining deeply with basic dyes. It is rarely found in the blood of adults except in certain diseases.
Functions.—These cells act as scavengers or as destroyers of living organisms that may have gained access to the tissue spaces. They play an important part in the chemical processes underlying the phenomena of immunity, and some at least are of importance in starting the process of clotting. ”

“ In all cases of constitutional disease, plasmogen is used to bring about a proper regeneration and preservation of the blood-cells. In all cases of acute, febrile diseases its purpose is to bring about a proper circulation and fluid condition of the blood-cells. ”

“ Each cell has the power of appropriating from the blood such substances as will preserve its existence, enable it to perform its functions, and produce a successor. Whether this power is inherent in the cell or is controlled by the nervous system is a question upon which authorities are divided. ”

“ Materials and Methods The total number of circulating reticulocytes was calculated as the product of the concentration of circulating reticulocytes in the blood and the blood volume of mature animals for each species. ”

“ The blood shows a great increase in the white cells. Sometimes they are more numerous than the red blood cells. (b) Lymphatic type is rare, various groups of the lymph glands are enlarged, usually separate, but sometimes matted together; others, such as the tonsils may become large. The blood shows an increase of the white cells, but less than in the other form. ”

“ With regard to the behavior of their serum and red blood-cells, all human beings fall into one of three groups. In the first group, the red cells are not agglutinable by any other human serum, while the serum is found to agglutinate the red cells of all persons not belonging to this first group. In the second group, the red cells are agglutinated by the serums of the first and of the third groups, while the serum agglutinates the cells of the third group only. ”

“ If we are in good health our blood cells are alert, active, and capable of defending us against any invading foe in the form of a microbe or bacteria. If we are not in good health the bacteria may overcome the white blood cells. If we inhale a large number of the consumptive bacteria at one time, and they succeed in getting into the lung substance, they are immediately met by an army of blood [Pg 411] cells, all bent on capturing them. An actual battle is fought and the deciding factor of the battle will be the condition of the patient. ”

“ They have a single large nucleus which stains feebly and their bodies may show neutrophile granules. Larger and smaller nucleated red blood cells may be found in spleno-myelogenous leukæmia. The leucocytes are frequently in a condition of fatty degeneration, and there may be a decrease in the number of red blood cells. ”

“ Some of the blood cells take a part in the process of extracting from the food its nourishing particles, and then carrying the same through the blood-channels to all parts of the body, where it is used to feed and nourish the stationary cells there located. ”

“ They give the blood its red color. They are cells which have been highly differentiated for the purpose of carrying oxygen from the lungs to the tissues. This is accomplished by means of an iron-bearing proteid, hemoglobin, which they contain. In the lungs hemoglobin forms a loose combination with oxygen, which it readily gives up when it reaches the tissues. Normal erythrocytes do not contain nuclei. They are formed from preëxisting nucleated cells in the bone-marrow.
White corpuscles, or leukocytes, are less highly differentiated cells. ”

“ As the stream diminishes in rapidity, the number of white cells in the clear space increases, the blood plaques appear also, and finally, when the current is reduced to stagnation, the clear space disappears, being filled entirely with cells, chiefly leucocytes, although red cells find their way into it. ”

“ Myelocytes are rare.
The red corpuscles show the changes usual in severe secondary anemia. Erythroblasts are seldom abundant. Blood-plaques are decreased.
3. Pseudoleukemia (Hodgkin's disease) resembles lymphatic leukemia in that there is marked and progressive enlargement of the lymph-nodes. There is, however, no distinctive blood-picture. The changes in hemoglobin and red cells resemble those of a moderate symptomatic anemia, with rather low color-index. The leukocytes are commonly normal in number and relative proportions. ”

“ In leukæmia, besides the myelocytes, the polynuclear leucocytes are also enormously increased, and their active emigration is beyond doubt. And the view, that the mononuclear cells are washed into the blood, excludes that of a single mode of origin of the leukæmic blood condition; and commits us to a highly artificial explanation of its production. ”

“ Our present-day knowledge prompts the adoption of a middle course between the two theories. The cells found in an inflamed part are undoubtedly drawn from both sources, but while the blood leukocytes have a great tendency to become fatty and to die, those cells derived from the fixed tissues incline more to organization ”

“ This simple method holds good for all counts of 1,000,000 or more. Thus, a count of 2,500,000 is 50 per cent. of the normal. If, then, the hemoglobin has been estimated at 40 per cent., divide 40 (the percentage of hemoglobin) by 50 (the percentage of corpuscles) . This gives 4/5, or 0.8, as the color index.
IV. ENUMERATION OF LEUKOCYTES
The normal number of leukocytes varies from 5000 to 10,000 per cubic millimeter of blood. The number is larger in robust individuals than in poorly nourished ones, and if disease be excluded, may be taken as an index of the individual's nutrition. ”

“ The oxygen which passes into the capillaries combines chemically with the carbon it finds in the blood, which carbon is a product of the digested food, and as a result of this combination heat is given off. The venous blood which comes to the lungs is not in a condition to nourish the tissues, but the purified bright red blood is ready to perform that duty, and is carried by the pulmonary veins to the left side of the heart. This part of the circulation, by which the blood is purified, has been called the lesser circulation. ”

“ Large mononuclear leukocytes probably originate in the bone-marrow or spleen. They constitute 2 to 4 per cent. of the total number of leukocytes: 100 to 400 per c.mm. of blood. An increase is unusual except in malaria, where it is quite constantly observed, and where many of the cells contain ingulfed pigment. ”

“ Their voracity is useful for the preservation of the social organism. By eliminating old, exhausted, diseased cells they rejuvenate the structure and prepare the way for new generations. And when the fecundity of these is exhausted the leucocytes come in to occupy the vacated situations, and conduct the organism thus patched up through a senile degeneracy to natural death.
The leucocytes, white globules, or phagocytes, by virtue of their mobility, are found everywhere—in the blood, in all the organs, and in all parts of the body—but are perhaps most abundant in the blood. ”

“ The leucocytes are generally normal both as regards number and form; myelocytes (Markzellen) are also described as present in the blood of chlorotic patients (Neusser, Hammerschlag, Gilbert, Weil) ; the blood-plates are normal in number, the alkalinity of the blood also normal, the isotonicity of the erythrocytes rather low. ”

“ Examine with a low power to see that the cells are evenly distributed. Count with the two-thirds objective and a high eye-piece, or with the long-focus one-sixth and a low eye-piece. [p. 164] A one-fourth objective will be found very satisfactory for this purpose.
With the ordinary ruling of the disc, count all the leukocytes in the large square, multiply by 10 to find the number in 1 c.mm. of diluted blood, and by the dilution to find the number per c.mm. of undiluted blood. In every case at least 100 leukocytes must be counted as a basis for calculation, and it is much better to count 500. ”

“ When freighted with oxygen it becomes oxyhaemoglobin and is red in color; when freed from its oxygen it takes a purple hue; hence the widely different appearance of arterial and venous blood, which so puzzled the early physiologists.
This proof of the vitally important role played by the red-blood corpuscles led, naturally, to renewed studies of these infinitesimal bodies. It was found that they may vary greatly in number at different periods in the life of the same individual, proving that they may be both developed and destroyed in the adult organism. ”