Experiments are performed in which a passive human neutrophil is deformed into an elongated "sausage" shape by aspirating it into a small glass pipette. When expelled from the pipette the neutrophil recovers its natural spherical shape in approximately 1 minute. This recovery process is analyzed according to a Newtonian, liquid-drop model in which a variational method is used to simultaneously solve the hydrodynamic equations for low Reynolds-number flow and the equations for membrane equilibrium with a constant membrane tension. The theoretical model gives a good fit to the experimental data for a ratio of membrane cortical tension to cytoplasmic viscosity of approximately 1.7 x 10(-5) cm/s (0.17 micron/s). However, when the cell is held in the pipette for only a short time period of 5 s or less, and then expelled, the cell undergoes an initial, rapid elastic rebound suggesting that the cell behaves in this instance as a Maxwell viscoelastic liquid rather than a Newtonian liquid with constant cortical tension.