The metabolism of the blood itself 



123 



Morawitz performed numerous control experiments, and the series 

 yielded the following data : 



(1) That the oxidation is a function of the corpuscles, since it 

 is just as evident in a suspension of them which has been removed 

 from the plasma and washed three times over in normal salt solution. 



(2) That it has an optimum temperature equal roughly to that 

 of the body. 



(3) That it cannot be accounted for by nucleated corpuscles, 

 either red or white. 



(4) That it is in short due to the young unnucleated red cor- 



80 1 



70 



^.60 



1 1 5 



I! 40 



u 



^ 30 





20 



10 



0'01 0-O2 0-03 0-04 0-05 0-06 0-07 0-08 0-09 0-1 



M/iooo KCN (M =65) 

 FIG. 69. 



puscles which are present in large numbers in the blood of the 

 anaemic rabbit. 



The work was continued by Itami (3) , who followed the whole 

 course of numerous cases of anaemia produced experimentally both 

 in dogs and rabbits. The anaemia was in some cases post-haemor- 

 rhagic, in some cases induced by phenylhydrazine. The technique 

 of the blood-gas analyses was the same as that of Morawitz. 



Let us consider some abstracts of typical experiments. The first 

 shows the influence of continuous bleeding. It is evident from the 

 last column but one that as more and more new corpuscles were 

 produced the oxygen consumption of the blood itself became greater 

 and greater in amount, corresponding to the increased number of 

 young corpuscles present. 



