The Blood-cells of the Oyster

Abstract

THE blood-cells (leucocytes) of the oyster have been a subject of great interest ever since Lankester first observed them crawling on the outside of the body parts of the oyster. Recently I have found that these leucocytes will live for 3 or 4 days in sea-water in dishes. If the leucocytes be set free by teasing up the heart of an oyster or by placing pieces of the palps or bases of the gills in sea-water in a petri dish, they are seen at first to be aggregated mainly in masses, but within ten minutes to half-an-hour it will be found that the leucocytes are spread over a large portion of the dish and creeping away from the masses in a flattened amœboid condition on the bottom of the dish or even on the surface film. At the end of 3 or 4 days the cells round off and die. The length of time they remain alive, however, should make these leucocytes—which are very easily obtainable—valuable as subjects for physiological investigations, and further, suggests that it might be possible to cultivate them in an appropriate medium under appropriate conditions.