THE LAWS OF PROTOPLASM I35 



He was removed to a hospital where the following 

 changes were noted: On admission his blood was 

 examined and found to give the following counts : 

 red blood corpuscles, 4,600,000; white blood cor- 

 puscles, 14,440; with the hemoglobin of the blood 

 testing 95 per cent. Eighteen hours after being 

 bitten, the blood was again examined and the fol- 

 lowing changes were seen to have taken place : red 

 blood corpuscles, 4,000,000; white blood, 16,000, 

 hemoglobin reduced to 75 per cent. On the fourth 

 day the blood count showed the following: red 

 blood corpuscles reduced to 2,800,000; white 

 blood corpuscles, 14,000, and the hemoglobin of 

 the blood now 60 per cent. On the sixth day there 

 were but 2,000,000 red blood corpuscles, 12,000 

 white corpuscles and the hemoglobin at but 45 

 per cent. The patient recovered but it was more 

 than six weeks before his blood became normal. 



In this study we can see definite changes taking 

 place following the introduction of the poison 

 from the rattlesnake into the blood. The most 

 noticeable is the great destruction of red blood 

 corpuscles followed by the loss of the hemoglobin 

 content of the blood. The hemoglobin is located 

 in the red corpuscles and has the special work of 

 carrying oxygen from the lungs to all parts of the 

 body. If enough red corpuscles are destroyed 

 by this snake poison, the cells of the body die be- 

 cause they are not adequately supplied with oxy- 



