586 Experiments 



XVI) was made on the same blood, divided into two parts: one, 

 treated with carbon monoxide, gave 6.66 volumes of oxygen per 

 100 volumes of blood; the other, added to water and brought to a 

 boil, released 27.72 volumes. The announcement of these results is 

 almost enough to prove that both analyses are equally bad. 



I might have limited myself to referring the reader to the ex- 

 periments which I am about to report and in which water has 

 often been added to the blood without making any change in the 

 result. But, through excess of scruple, I shall report two experi- 

 ments which were carried out with great care with the special 

 purpose of checking the strange statement of the physiologists 

 of Montpellier. 



Experiment CLIV. January 15. Dog of medium size, exhausted by 

 suppurations resulting from numerous operations. 



Drew from the carotid 33 cc. of blood which were immediately 

 introduced into the pump .... A 



Immediately afterward, again drew 33 cc. of blood; but previously 

 50 cc. of water, from which the gases had been exhausted by vacuum 

 and by boiling, had been introduced into 2 the pump . . . . B 



Blood A contained, per 100 volumes, 7.1 of oxygen. 



Blood B contained, per 100 volumes, 6.2 of oxygen. 



Experiment CLV. January 18. Large dog, intact. 



Two pumps for extraction of gases were prepared; into one of 

 them 33 cc. of water were introduced, then exhausted. 



About 70 cc. of blood were drawn from the femoral artery; 33 cc. 

 were introduced into pump A, 33 cc. into the second B, in which is 

 the water. 



Blood A contains, per 100 volumes, 19.7 of oxygen and 45.0 of CO. 



Blood B contains, per 100 volumes, 19.8 of oxygen and 44.2 of CO-. 



We see that, whether we are handling a blood extremely low in 

 oxygen, or a normal blood, the addition of water did not alter at 

 all the quantity of oxygen extracted from the blood. 



Furthermore, the so-called verification of this difference had 

 as its first purpose an explanation of the strange persistence of 

 MM. Estor and Saint-Pierre s in maintaining that there is, from the 

 standpoint of oxygen content, a considerable difference between 

 the blood of the carotid and that of the femoral; an enormous dif- 

 ference, according to them, since when the blood of the carotid 

 contains 21.06 volumes of oxygen, that of the femoral would con- 

 tain only 7.62. They use this difference to support a theory of 

 their own about the almost instantaneous combustion of the ma- 

 terials of the blood as it leaves the lung. I should certainly not 

 have returned to this subject, which I thought I had previously 

 exhausted, without new communications from MM. Estor and Saint- 



