Globule

“ If it be put into water, in the space of half an hour a languid motion begins, the globule turns itself about, lengthens itself by slow degrees, and becomes very lively; in a short time it protrudes its wheels, and swims about in search of food; or else, fixing itself by its tail, brings the food to it by its rotatory organs, which throw the whole circumjacent fluid into a violent commotion; when its hunger is satisfied, it generally becomes quiescent, and sometimes resumes its globular form. ”

“ The colour of one of the globules being of a beautiful purple, changed soon after to a brilliant white.
The sun being obscured by some clouds, a globule lost its spurious diameter, and acquired the shape of an half moon, of the size of the real disk or diameter of the globule. I saw the sun break out again, and the half moon was gradually transformed into a much smaller spurious disk.
(10.) The spurious disks of globules are lost for want of proper illumination, but do not change their magnitude on that account. The brightness of the atmosphere in a fine day is sufficient to produce them ”

“ Each globule of our blood is a miniature world, and we have five million in the fraction of a cubic inch, flowing incessantly through our arteries, flesh and brain, rushing in a vortex of life, as rapid relatively as that of the celestial bodies, and continually renewing the molecules of our heart, brain, eyes, nerves and flesh, and every atom of our bodily organism. And this so rapidly that in a few months our body is entirely reconstructed. ”

“ Inside a structureless, thin, but firm membrane (ovolemma, Fig. 52 c) we find a large, quite clear, and transparent globule of albumin (d) . At both poles of its axis this globule has a pit-like depression. In the pit at the upper, animal pole (which is turned downwards in the floating ovum) there is a bi-convex lens composed of protoplasm, and this encloses the nucleus (k) ; this is the formative yelk of the stem-cell, or the germinal disk (b) . The small fat-globule (f) and the large albumin-globule (d) together form the nutritive yelk. ”

“ Within those limits within which the method used has been justified, the mass in question must be regarded as in strictness stable with respect to the growth of a globule of the kind considered, since , the work required for the formation of such a globule of a certain size (viz., that which would be in equilibrium with the surrounding mass) , will always be positive. Nor can smaller globules be formed, for they can neither be in equilibrium with the surrounding mass, being too small, nor grow to the size of that to which relates. ”

“ It may easily be shown that the quantity denoted by is the work which would be required to form (by a reversible process) the heterogeneous globule in the interior of a very large mass having initially the uniform phase of the exterior mass. For this work is equal to the increment of energy of the system when the globule is formed without change of the entropy or volume of the whole system or of the quantities of the several components. ”

“ The little globule of water, from which he has just taken the block of stone that would be scarcely visible under a powerful microscope, has become lighter than the surrounding globules, and ascends to the surface. In obedience to the law which we have mentioned, that as much water must flow back to a place, as flows away from it, a globule of water from the surface now descends to take the place of that which has arisen; descends to the little stone-mason, that he may rob it, in turn, of the block of stone that it contains. ”

“ The blood-globule not only lives its individual life within the plasma, but it needs, in order to complete its function of vivifying every part of the body, to absorb oxygen from the air, and it then takes that bright vermilion color which is characteristic. ”

“ Diameter of the central capsule about twice that of the nucleus, one-third or half that of the jelly-cover. Nucleus thin-walled, transparent, containing very numerous and small nucleoli. Protoplasm of the central capsule filled with small black pigment-granules, quite intransparent, contains densely packed hyaline (albuminous?) globules of equal size; every pellucid globule includes a smaller globule (one-third or one-fourth its diameter) , which appears to be composed of aggregated oil-bubbles. ”

“ When a little fresh blood is placed under the microscope, it is seen to consist of a colourless fluid filled with numerous little bodies, commonly called “blood-globules,” varying very greatly in size and shape, according to the animal from which they were taken. Those of the reptiles are very large, as may be seen at Fig. 4, Plate X., which represents a blood corpuscle of the Proteus. In this curious reptile the globules are so large that they may be distinguished during its life by means of a common pocket lens. ”

“ I. History of the Moneres.—In the spring of 1864 I observed in the Mediterranean, at Villafranca, near Nice, little floating globules of slime, one millimetre or half a line in diameter, which interested me very much. Under the microscope each of these globules looked like a little star, its centre consisting of a far smaller, structureless globule, while from the outer surface radiated several thousand exceedingly fine threads. Close examination with high powers showed that the whole body of the star-shaped thing consisted of simple albuminous cell-substance—sarcode, or protoplasm ”

“ Here we are in the presence of unity; there is no longer any question of association. Most living cells are composed of four parts—a membranous envelope, a contained fluid in which is a special globule, and the nucleus, containing the nucleolus. Of these four parts only one, the contained semi-fluid, perfectly limpid or finely granular, the protoplasm, is indispensable. It is in this strange substance that life, which needs no other apparatus to manifest itself, resides. Those remarkable beings, the Monera, are formed of it alone. ”

“ Everything leads us to believe that the formation of globules in the blood is the last touch given by nature to that magical provision begun in thevegetable, continued in the stomach, and finished in the veins, to which, in combination with carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, we are indebted for the subsistence of every portion of our body. Thus the blood-globules may be considered as albumen which has finished its education, and is ready to go into the world; while the albumen of the serum is, like our young friends, the generations in reserve, who are still at school awaiting their turn. ”

“ In relation to the smelling of dried globules, Hahnemann observes, 'A globule, of which ten, twenty, or a hundred weigh a grain, impregnated with the 30th potentised dilution, and then dried, retains for this purpose (of olfaction) all its power undiminished for at least eighteen or twenty years (my experience extends this length of time) , even though the phial be opened a thousand times during that period, if it be but protected from heat and the sun's light. ”

“ In all birds they are oval; in all mammals they are round. In all? Nay, I am wrong. As if the better to hide from us the key to this riddle, nature has amused herself by making an exception. Camels and llamas, I forgot to tell you, have also globules in the form of long dishes, like the hen and the chaffinch. Find out why, if you can. As to the reason of the number, it is a very simple one. Since the energy of the blood resides in the globules, it follows that the most energetic blood will contain the largest amount of globules. ”

“ These littlest fishes are called globules; but they are not exactly shaped like little globes, as the word would lead you to suppose. They are more like little plates slightly hollowed out on both sides. The central nucleus is surrounded by a flattened margin rather bladdery in appearance, of a beautiful red color, formed of a sort of very soft and very elastic jelly. I scarcely need tell you that all this was discovered through the microscope, and moreover, by examining the blood of frogs, in which the globules are much larger than in ours. ”

“ Spherical, of a black colour, with a lucid point.
A small globule; one hemisphere is opake and black, the other has a pellucid crystalline appearance; a vehement motion is observable in the dark part. It moves in a tremulous manner, and often passes through the drop, turning round as if upon an axis. Many may be often seen joined together in their passage through, the water; they sometimes move as in a little whirlpool, and then separate. ”

“ The globule of albuminoid matter has developed into distinct members—sense-apparatus, organs respiratory, digestive, circulatory, locomotive, etc.—each of which has a separate task to fulfill, and is distinctly organized for that very purpose. It is no departure from our subject to remark that, though in the organic body one organ may, under certain circumstances, undertake the duties of another, such vicarious action involves grave peril to the organ concerned, and to the entire animal. ”

“ Each cell contains a darkly-stained nucleus (Nu) , but the nuclei are seen only where they lie in the plane of the section. The protoplasmic area about the nucleus in each cell appears to be occupied mostly with hollow cavities of various sizes (a) , but in life each cavity contains a small globule of fatty oil. The proto- plasmic material between the oil globules contains also glycogen, or animal starch, as can be shown by staining with iodine. ”

“ Besides these globules, others exist in which the evolution of the microbe is more advanced; the clear spot has become larger, and is surrounded as if by a setting of fine black granulations; all around, the hemoglobine, plainly distinguishable by its greenish-yellow tint, forms a ring, which grows narrower as the parasite increases in volume. At last, nothing is left of it but a perfectly colorless, narrow marginal zone, the hemoglobine having entirely disappeared, and the substance of the red globule having been taken possession of by the microbe till it has been reduced to a shell. ”

“ The cellules forming the matrices of the globular casts will be seen in this section to have occupied nearly the whole thickness of the plate of shell. The numerous filaments extending between the globules in every direction, preserve the traces of as many minute tubes in which they must originally have been moulded, and it will be farther perceived that each globule is connected with the flinty envelope immediately above and below its centre by two thicker stems resembling the extremities of a projecting axis.
The next specimen of the suite (fig. 5.) ”

“ This discovery of the globules of the blood, was destined to throw great light upon the way in which the nutrition of the organs was carried on. Modern chemists, who are always fond of investigation, have examined what they are made of, and can find little else in them but albumen. Out of our 127 ounces of globules, 125 are albumen ”

“ The Nucleus.—Every cell capable of living, growing, and multiplying, possesses a nucleus of constitution very analogous to the cellular mass which surrounds it. The anatomical elements in which no nucleus is found, such as the red globules of blood in adult mammals, are bodies which are [Pg 164] certain, sooner or later, to disappear. There is therefore no real cell without a nucleus, any more than there is a nucleus without a cell. ”

“ The probable commencement, we think, of the floating line, is by the emission of little globules of the glutinous material to the points of the spinnerules—perhaps it may be dropped from them, if not ejected, and the globules being carried off by the current of air, drawn out into a thread. ”

“ The elements of our tissues have their nutrition kept up by a constant movement of supply and withdrawal, new molecules replace the old ones, and acts of assimilation and disassimilation find by turns in the plasma their point of origin and completion. The blood-globule is nourished just as the constituent parts of the glands, the muscles, the nerves, and the brain are, and the only difference to be noted in this respect is that the process takes place within the very plasma itself, while the other elements are parted from it by the thin membrane of the capillary vessels. ”

“ Blood.—This blood consists of a yellowish liquid, in which very numerous red blood-corpuscles or globules (Pl. IX. fig. 1) are suspended, and to which the red colour is owing. The blood-corpuscles are not globular, but discoidal, i. e. they are circular and flattened, the sides being slightly sunk in. Their form is best seen as they roll over on a slide, after the application of a glass cover. The coloured corpuscles are cells; they appear yellowish red under the microscope, the deep red colour of the blood depending upon the large number of them seen at once and crowded together. ”

“ You may even affirm, without appearing too adventurous, that the innumerable whirling globules which enter into the composition of the human blood are so many microscopical individuals, each with its own proper life,—infinitesimal forms which are born, and move to and fro, and disappear, and are renewed, without the individual—whose aggregate they perform—having any consciousness of all this activity. ”

“ The blood is a liquid, consisting of a plasma holding in solution serum albumen, serum globulin, fibrine-forming elements, sugar, urea, salts, and a variety of other soluble bodies, and floating a series of semi-solid organized bodies, the red and white globules. ”