Red Cell Thickness in Normals and in Pernicious Anemia

A method previously described by Williams and Wyckoff, Bessis, and others is adapted for measuring the thickness of the dried blood cell. Statistical analysis of the results reveals the presence in pernicious anemia of a distinct type of cell which in the dried blood film has a mean diameter 1 µ above normal and a thickness 0.224 µ less than normal. These pathologic cells, which thus flatten out when spread on a glass slide, also shrink more than do normal cells when dried in a blood film.