He said it was likely to throw much light on other ill-understood
conditions of the brain and nervous system, as well as on the peculiar
faint odour of the insane, now so well recognised in all large asylums.
In order to compare this abnormal state with the aspect of the healthy
circulating medium, he proposed to examine a little good living blood
side by side with the morbid specimen under the microscope. Nurse Wade
was in attendance in the laboratory, as usual. The Professor, standing
by the instrument, with one hand on the brass screw, had got the
diseased drop ready arranged for our inspection beforehand, and was
gloating over it himself with scientific enthusiasm. "Grey corpuscles,
you will observe," he said, "almost entirely deficient. Red, poor in
number, and irregular in outline. Plasma, thin. Nuclei, feeble. A state
of body which tells severely against the due rebuilding of the wasted
tissues. Now compare with typical normal specimen." He removed his eye
from the microscope, and wiped a glass slide with a clean cloth as
he spoke. "Nurse Wade, we know of old the purity and vigour of your
circulating fluid. You shall have the honour of advancing science once
more.
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