396 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



had been taken in a sterile manner and brought home from the Antarctic in a refrigerator 

 at — lo'^ C, were thawed and examined. All were found to have A' organisms alive and 

 active. One bottle was taken to the Rothamsted Experimental Station, where Mr 

 D. Ward Cutler and Miss L. M. Crump very kindly undertook to examine it. Mr Cutler 

 has made the following statement : 



Whale's blood brought from the Antarctic frozen has been found to contain bodies which are 

 almost identical in appearance and movement with small particles which may be seen in newly shed 

 human blood^ (diam. o-^-z-Ofi). They arc definitely motile, though their action is irregular, and not 

 amoeboid. Small quantities of this frozen blood were introduced into a nutrient solution containing 

 I per cent glucose, 07 per cent sodium chloride, and a trace of sodium phosphate. In this solution 

 the bodies were found to grow and reproduce. Various stages in the simple division of the bodies 

 were observed and at the same time their total number increased : 



Thawed blood: number of bodies 30 :, lo^/c.mm. 

 Blood diluted in nutrient solution 10 times: number of bodies 

 After 3 days 53 x lo^/c.mm. 

 „ 4 ,, 28 X lo^/c.mm. 

 5 „ 82 X io6/c.mm. 



Blood diluted in nutrient solution 100 times: number of bodies 

 After 3 days 36 :- lo^/c.mm. 

 „ 4 ,, 64 : lo^cmm. 

 5 .- 52 -■■ io8/c.mm. 

 Considerable powers of endurance are evidenced by the fact that the whales' blood was kept at 

 — 10° C. for 2 months with occasional thawing. 



OXYGEN CAPACITY OF WHALE BLOOD 



Attempts were made in South Georgia in 1 930-1 to estimate the oxygen capacity of 



the blood of Blue and Fin whales and their foetuses. A Barcroft differential manometer 



was used. The results obtained in the estimation of the capacities of forty samples of 



fresh blood were compared with their haemoglobin content. The haemoglobin in the 



blood varied greatly from one sample to another, but the oxygen capacity, also variable, 



was always far in excess of the theoretical capacity calculated from the percentage of 



haemoglobin. 



Average haemoglobin percentage 9-62 



Oxygen equivalent — vol. per cent 12-97 



Average oxygen capacity — vol. per cent 21-30 



In the absence of other methods of blood gas analysis, it was thought that the extra 

 capacity was caused by another respiratory pigment supplementary to haemoglobin. 

 In the light of the results of the season 1932-3 it is plain that the Barcroft manometer 

 gave false readings with whale blood. While oxygen was being liberated from the blood 

 on one side of the manometer by treatment with potassium ferricyanide, which poisoned 

 any living organisms in this blood, the blood in the dummy bottle was absorbing nitrogen 



1 These appear to originate from the disintegration of leucocytes and since they are unable to reproduce 

 are quite different from the X organisms (A. H. L.). 



