A. VANNOTTI 



concentration as poisoning proceeds. During the first two or three 

 weeks of poisoning, Prader was unable to find a significant increase 

 of the pigment ; it was only from the third week that he observed a 

 considerable increase in the cytochrome C content, particularly in the 

 musculature (141 per cent). In the brain the increase is only 10 per cent. 



Table I 



These observations show that in lead poisoning only the synthesis 

 of haemoglobin is injured ; per contra, the cellular haems (cytochrome C) 

 do not show any reduction. We must insist on this observation, 

 because it gives us indirectly the answer to another problem of 

 pigmentary metabolism : that of the site of haem synthesis. If the 

 organism used the haem synthesized in the erythroblast of the bone 

 marrow for cytochrome C synthesis, we should observe a decrease of 

 cytochrome C parallel to that of the haemoglobin. Prader's obser- 

 vations permit us to conclude that the synthesis of the cellular haems 

 is independent of that of the haemoglobin and that, per contra, a 

 notable increase of the cellular haem may correspond to a decrease 

 of the haemoglobin. We were able to observe this fact with Gobat 

 in other cases of severe anaemia, and Whipple noted it for myoglobin 

 in pernicious anaemia, in which a compensation for the decreased 

 supply of oxygen is involved ; this compensation was observed by our 

 collaborators A. Delachaux and A. Tissieres 10 in oxygen lack at 

 high altitude (over 18,000 feet) and in cases where an increase of 

 oxygen in the organism is necessary (muscular hypertrophy and 

 hyperthyroidism according to Tissieres 11 and D. L. Drabkin 16 ). 



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