Dr. Meyer on the Gases of the Blood. 263 
Substituting these values of X,, Xs, X4, &c. in equation (6), 
- a.(~—1) ,, #.(vx—1)(@7—2)2? 
(l+z2)*=l+az4 st Es ea eae y hi 6 Gain’ 
x(#—1)(@—2)(x—8) Leg 
1.2.3.4 frit teres 
which is the binomial theorem. 
It will be observed, that whereas by the common method the 
binomial theorem is first proved, and the exponential theorem 
deduced from it, and from that again the logarithmic formula, 
the opposite order of investigation is here pursued ; the loga- 
rithmic formula being first proved, the exponential theorem de- 
duced from it, and from that the binomial theorem. 
Olveston, Bristol, 
September 5, 1857. 
+ 
XXXI. On the Gases of the Blood. By Lotuar Meyer, M.D.* 
ae information which we have up to the present time pos- 
sessed respecting the composition of the gases of the blood, 
is entirely derived from the valuable experiments which Magnus + 
has instituted upon this subject. The results obtained by this 
philosopher have been established and extended in the present 
research, of which the details have already been laid before the 
medical world in Henlé and Pfeufer’s Journal for Rational Me- 
dicine f. 
The object of the following investigation, which was carried 
out in the laboratory of Prof. Bunsen at Heidelberg, and com- 
pleted in September 1856, was, in the first place, to determine 
the quantities of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid contained 
in normal, and more particularly in arterial blood ; and secondly, 
to examine how far the absorption of these gases in the blood was 
dependent upon the well-known law first propounded by Dalton 
and Henry. 
The gases dissolved in the blood were collected, according 
to Bunsen’s method, by ebullition in a vacuous space, as 
described on pages 15 and 16 of the English edition of his 
‘Gasometric Methods§.’ In order to avoid the frothing and 
coagulation which ensue when blood is boiled, it was mixed 
with from ten to twenty times its own volume of distilled water 
* Communicated by Henry E. Roscoe, B.A., Ph.D. 
+ Magnus, “Gase des Blutes,” Poggendorff’s Annalen, vols. xl. and lxvi. 
{ See Henlé and Pfeufer’s Journal fir rationelle Medecine, N. F. vol. viii. 
part 2, 
§ Bunsen, ‘Gasometry.’ London: Walton and Maberly. 1857. 
