Sickling Phenomenon in Deer

GULLIVER1 described peculiarly shaped red cells in deer blood and Undritz2 was able to produce these cells in vitro by passing oxygen through the blood. The cells looked remarkably like human sickle-cells. Gulliver examined three tropical deer : Cervus mexicanus, Cervus reevesii and Cervus porcinus. He also mentions a Persian deer, but its scientific name is not given. O'Rouke3 investigated 178 deer in the United States and found ‘sickle-cells’ in 14. Undritz obtained positive results with the blood of C ervus elaphus, Dama dama, Sambar (Rusa), Pseudaxis sika, Pseudaxis hortulorum, Axis axis. The present investigation has been carried out with blood from Elaphurus davidianus (Pere David deer). No sickle-cells could be produced with the blood of Rangifer tarandus (reindeer), Alces alces (elk), and Cervus canadiensis (Wapiti deer).