65 



protracted intermittent fevers, scanty and unwholesome food, living 

 in dark and ill-ventilated places, and in general whatever slowly ex- 

 hausts the system." 



28. — This same condition of the blood, aglobulia, as he denomi- 

 nates it, is considered, by M. E. Marchand,* as a common diseased 

 condition, and that its distinguishing mark is disturbance of the 

 nervous system. The quantity of blood globules may fall from 

 tWo' the norma l state, (Becquerel and Rodier make it about T VuS 

 in the male and y'oVo m the female,) to T |§o- Andral has seen it 

 as low as T §^o, and Dr. Frick ygijo-t ^ ne remedies consist, con- 

 tinues Marchand, in such diet as will bring back the quantity of 

 blood-globules. Animal food, wine, iron bitters, exercise in the open 

 air and in the sunshine, residence in the country, sea bathing, &c. 



29. — In the valuable article of Dr. Charles Frick, of Baltimore, 

 (quoted above,) from the American Journal, January 1848, " On 

 the relative proportions of the different organic and inorganic ele- 

 ments of the blood in different diseases;" he states that "the quan- 

 tity of the chlorides and phosphates of soda and potash is dependent, 

 not on the particular disease, but upon the season of the year in 

 which the examination is made," being higher in winter and spring. 

 The difference, he thinks, may be accounted for by the increased 

 exhalation from the skin, and explains the prevalence of the idea 

 that there is a diminution of these salts in essential fevers. His 

 results, in regard to organic elements, agree with those of Andral. 

 The iron in every case, without relation to the disease, bearing 

 almost an exact proportion to the quantity of the globules, and the 

 average in nine cases of different kinds of inflammatory disease, was 

 almost exactly that of health. In tubercular cases, while the tuber- 

 cles are crude, the fibrin was about normal, in others his results were 

 similar to those of Andral. The albumen was always above the 

 normal quantity, as a consequence of the imperfect assimilation in a 

 tubercular diathesis. Iron and chlorides unchanged. In crude 

 tubercle the lime was above and the phosphates below, while in soft- 

 ened tubercle this was reversed. In remittent fever the fibrin is 

 above, in intermittent below. In remittent the globules are in- 

 creased. He has not found the chlorides and phosphates diminished, 

 as asserted by Stevens. In typhoid fever he has found the organic 



* Monthly Journal of Medical' Sciences, Nov. 1S47. 

 f American Journal, January 1S48. 



