1. 1 Platelets in Hemostasis and Thrombosis: A Brief Overview For more than 100 years the dominant role of blood platelets in hemostasis and thrombosis has been well documented. Seven years before their identification as a distinct class of blood corpuscles by Bizzozero (1882), Zahn (1875), using intravital microscopic observations, described the growth of an arterial thrombus as the result of "continued apposition of colorless blood corpuscles along the direction of blood flow. " A hallmark still valid today was set by Eberth and Schimmel busch (1888), who clearly divided the formation of...