The Microscope. 



77 



destruction to life is invited and facilitated. They have an exceed- 

 ingly energetic affinity for irrespirable and poisonous gases, with 

 some of which they enter into close and inseparable combinations, 

 thereby sacrificing their own integrity and life-supporting power 

 forever. Some of these poisonous gases deprive the hsemato-crys- 

 talline of the blood of its power to absorb and fix oxygen ; others 

 seize and consume all the oxygen of the blood to satisfy their own 

 keen affinity for this gas ; others cause a cleavage, a true chemolysis 

 of the blood haemato-crystalline, combining with its alkaline base, 

 thereby setting this crystallizable substance free, whilst still others 

 cause several of these effects to take place at one and the same time. 

 When such a fundamental and vital change has taken place, the 

 blood's life function is at an end. Often it is not even necessaiy 

 that the entire blood mass should have been disintegrated. We 

 understand now how it happens that when a man inhales the 

 poisonous and much dreaded fire-damp, the mephitic exhalation of 

 the coal mines for example, he may be brought to the surface alive. 



No. 3. Direct vision Spectroscope. 



may linger on for days, and yet be beyond the possibility to recover 

 even when he plunged in an ocean of oxygen. Such was the 

 condition of many of the victims of the accident a few years ago 

 in the collieries of West Pittstone, Pa., for in these cases fatal 

 injury was sustained by the crystallizable albumen of the blood. 



And here comes in another practical lesson. When a cleavage, 

 or chymolisis of the blood has taken place, its disintegrated ele- 

 ments become foreign bodies, liable to work out extensive mischief, 

 unless eliminated and carried from the system. 



You may naturally ask. Is there no remedy for this condition 

 of afPairs? 



In answer, let me refer you once more to Preyer's experiments 

 with the dogs, and how rapidly their oxygen was consumed. The 

 safety of the patient must depend often upon the speedy manner 

 the defect is made good. This can be done by transfusion, sending 

 airable blood through the arteries and veins. Perhaps some day 

 we will discover how to utilize the haemato-cryst. solutions for this 



