64 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 63 



most thorough original studies is by Drs. Ossian, Schaumann and 

 Emil Rosenquist, of Helsingfors, Finland/ Turban, also, has made 

 a study of this subject.* 



Much of the earlier work has been proved incosrect as instru- 

 mental and laboratory technic has been improved. Hematologic 

 work has made rapid strides and several important correcting factors 

 have been introduced. Attention has been called to the more rapid 

 evaporation of blood samples at high altitudes where the climate is 

 always dry and errors from this source are considerable. 



Not only that, but the human organism itself loses water more 

 readily than at lower levels and so do animals used for experimental 

 purposes. How much value should be given to these corrections we 

 do not know, but there is evidently a revision downwards noticeable 

 in nearly all the later studies of the blood count at high altitudes. 

 Prof. Biirker, of Tiibingen, and his colleagues show at best only a 

 comparatively small increase amounting to only four to eleven and a 

 half per cent at an altitude of six thousand feet.^ 



These observers made comparative observations at Tiibingen 

 (altitude 1,030 feet or 314 meters), and at the Sanatorium Schatzalp 

 (altitude 6,150 feet or 1,874 meters, about 300 meters above Davos). 



Barker's findings, which appear to result from an exceptionally careful 

 personal investigation with every precaution to avoid experimental error, show 

 that altitude does exert an unquestionable influence on the blood in the direc- 

 tion of an increase in both the number of erythrocytes and the content of 

 hemoglobin. The increase is an absolute one, not merely relative. The red 

 cells increased from 4 to 11.5 per cent, the hemoglobin from 7 to 10 per 

 cent. These figures, it will be noted, are smaller than those usually given 

 for the effect of moderate altitudes, yet they represent substantial and unde- 

 niable gains quite in harmony with other previous observations. 



The responses of the different persons in Biirker's Alpine expedition varied 

 in degree; but the qualitative examination of the blood established the fact 

 that no hemoglobin derivative other than oxyhemoglobin was concerned in 



' Ossian, Schaumann and Rosenquist : Ueber die Natur d. Blutverander- 

 ungen in Hohen Klima, Zeitschr. f. klin. Med., 1898, Band xxxv, Heft 1-4, 

 pp. 126-170 and 315-349. 



''Turban, Munch. Med. Wochenschr., 1899, p. 792. 



^ See Editorial Altitude and the Blood Corpuscles, Journ. Amer. Med. Ass., 

 February 3, 1912, p. 344; September 21, 1912 and November i, 1913. 



Biirker, K. ; Jooss, E. ; Moll, E., and Neumann, E. : Die physiologischen 

 Wirkungen des Hohenklimas : II. Die Wirkung auf das Blut, gepriift durch 

 tagliche Erythrozytenzahlungen und tagliche qualitative und quantitative 

 Hamoglobinbestimmlungen im Blute von vier Versuchspersonen wahrend 

 eines Monats, Ztschr. f. Biol, 1913, Vol. 61, 379. 



