44 



Chapter IV 



Moreover the curves obtained did not agree with those either of 

 Bohr or of Hiifner and they certainly were not in any rectangular 

 hyperbola. 



We thought it best to get rid of the proteids of the serum which 

 might in some way adsorb oxygen. So we dissolved the haemo- 

 globin in Ringer's solution. The only trace of uniformity in our 

 result seemed to be that it differed from all our other results even 

 as they had done from one another. 



The curve which we obtained was not of any particular mathe- 

 matical form which we could discern. It even differed from that of 

 a suspension of washed corpuscles in Ringer's solution. 



7o100 



60 



20 



20 4O bO 00 100mm. 



FIG. 22. Comparison of points obtained from a solution of haemoglobin made alkaline 

 with ammonium carbonate, with the dissociation curves of Bohr and Hiifner. Oxygen 

 pressure horizontal. Percentage saturation vertical. 



Lastly we made solutions of haemoglobin in different ways. 



Our great effort was to obtain the maximum degree of concen- 

 tration of the haemoglobin. The importance of this point had been 

 rendered evident by the earlier work of Hiifner, whose solutions of 

 haemoglobin had been so dilute that the oxygen physically dissolved 

 in the solution bore a considerable ratio to the total oxygen present. 

 To this fact we then attributed the discrepancies to be found in 

 Hiifner's results. On looking back now we can see that it merely 

 served to obscure discrepancies of a much more deep-seated nature, of 



