CHEMICAL PHYSIOLOGY. 101 



haemoglobin that has recently appeared is that by Y. 

 Inoko {Zeit. physiol. Chem., xviii. 57), and the following is 

 a brief re'sumd of it. Hoppe-Seyler, and later Jaquet, 

 showed that the blood crystals from birds contain phos- 

 phorus ; this has been explained by the presence of a 

 nucleus in their blood corpuscles. The present investiga- 

 tion relates to (1) whether nucleic acid can be obtained 

 from birds' blood crystals, and (2) whether an analogous 

 crystalline compound can be obtained by adding nucleic 

 acid to the oxyhemoglobin of mammals' blood. The 

 answer to the first question is in the affirmative, as 

 adenine was obtained from the crystals. With regard 

 to the second point, oxyhemoglobin was prepared from 

 horses' blood, and dissolved in a solution of nucleic acid, 

 and cooled to o° C, when a substance crystallised out in 

 prisms, which contained 0*4 per cent, of phosphorus ; that 

 is approximately the same as in the blood crystals of the 

 goose. 



The blood pigment leads one next to speak of the 

 use of iron in the form of anaemia called chlorosis. A 

 number of papers on the absorption of iron have already 

 been alluded to under the head of nutrition. In addition 

 to these, three more must be mentioned ; the first . by 

 E. L. Jones (Brit. Med. Jour., 1893, ii. 670), whose 

 observations are chiefly on the specific gravity of the 

 blood in this condition ; the second by C. T. Morner 

 {Zeit. physiol. Chem., xviii. 13); on the whole Morner 

 supports Bunge's views of the modus operandi of iron as 

 a drug ; he, however, finds that iron salts are not 

 general antiseptics, but their usefulness depends on the 

 readiness with which they form the sulphide and so re- 

 move hydrogen sulphide from the alimentary canal. The 

 third paper is by R. Stockman (Brit. Med. Jour., 1893, 

 i. 881), and contains the strongest evidence yet adduced 

 against Bunge's view and in favour of that which teaches 

 that the iron given as a drug is itself assimilated. The 

 main grounds on which this conclusion is based are the 

 following: (1) Iron inorganic compounds cure chlorosis 

 when given hypodermically ; (2) sulphide of iron itself 



