Anaemia.

  • Ehrlich, Paul, 1854-1915.
Date:
[1910?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anaemia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    stain readily with almost any dye. It was further possible to demonstrate, by means of dyes, that the membrane is chemically different from the granules, since when eosin-aurantia-indulin- glycerine is employed, the membrane colours blackish and the granules a reddish orange. From these observations Ehrlich deduced the following con- clusions, which may be quoted literally: That the cells of the liver during the period of feeding contain a narrow protoplasmic membrane and a homogeneous content which carries glycogen, and in which the nucleus and the round granules of (functionat- ing) protoplasm are embedded. When these results are compared with the knowledge which has been gained within recent times with regard to cells it becomes easy to determine the exact position where the glycogen is deposited. Kupffer first established the fact with regard to liver cells, that the contents of the cell do not represent a uniform body microscopically. This has proved to be true for all cells. In the surviving object, two distinctly different substances are found beside the nucleus; the one, a hyaline matrix, which constitutes the greater part of the mass, and the other, a sparse finely granulated fibrillary substance, which is embedded in the former. Kupffer called the former paraplasm and the latter protoplasm. By warming the objects to about 22° C. a distinct but slight movement w^as observed in the network. There can be no doubt but that of these two substances, the granulated reticulated one—the protoplasm—is the more important. It may be assumed that the granulation of the network is the centre of the real specific function of the cell. Any way, it will be advisable to give a special name, such as microsomes, to these structures, which in the liver cell form round or oval granules staining yellow with iodine, and taking on other dyes easily and intensely (Hanstein). It was necessary to quote this old work extensively to show that Ehrlich had, even as long ago as 1883, described the granules as the actual carriers of the function of the cell; this view was enunciated many years later by Altmann under the