176 



OF THE BLOOD. 



From these it would appear that the mean excess of the whole solid constituents 

 in the blood of the male above those of the female, is reckoned by the several 

 experimenters at from 12 to 20 parts in 1000; and that the variation is the 

 greatest in the proportion of corpuscles, neither of the other elements exhibiting 

 any considerable difference in their amount in the two sexes. The excess in 

 the solid constituents of the male blood above those of the female is as well 

 marked in the extreme as in the mean results ; for the maxima in the female 

 do not pass much higher than the mean of the male, whilst her minima fall far 

 below his; on the other hand, the maxima of the male rise far higher than those 

 of the female, whilst his minima scarcely descend below her mean. 



160. It is obvious, from the extent of diversity shown in the preceding table, 

 that the proportions of the constituents must vary considerably with individual 

 temperament and constitution. All the persons whose blood furnished the sub- 

 jects of the preceding analyses were (or considered themselves to be) in perfect 

 health ; but their standard of health could not have been by any means uniform. 

 There is no doubt that, in individuals of the plethoric or " sanguineous" tem- 

 perament, the proportion of the whole solid constituents, and especially of the 

 corpuscles, is considerably greater than in persons of the " lymphatic" tempera- 

 ment; and it appears, from the analyses of Lecanu, 1 that the sexual difference in 

 the blood almost disappears when the blood of males and of females of the latter 

 temperament is compared. 



161. A considerable influence is exercised on the entire amount, and on the 

 relative proportions, of the constituents of the Blood, by the previous ingestion 

 of food or drink, and by the diet habitually employed. The observations 

 hitherto made upon the first of these points, however, are not sufficiently 

 numerous to admit of being generalized; and the chief points that can be defi- 

 nitely stated are those which have been substantiated by Profs. Buchanan and 

 R. I). Thompson, 2 in their examination of blood whose serum exhibits the 

 "milky" appearance, which, when it occurs in health, is due to the entrance of 

 chyle, more rapidly than its oleaginous matter can be eliminated by the respi- 

 ration or appropriated by the tissues. When a full meal containing oily matter 

 is taken after a long fast, and a small quantity of blood is drawn previously to 

 the meals and at intervals subsequently, the serum, though quite limpid in the 

 blood first drawn, shows an incipient turbidity about half an hour afterwards ; 

 this turbidity increases for about six hours subsequently, after which it usually 

 begins to disappear. The period at which the discoloration is the greatest, 

 however, and the length of time during which it continues, vary according to 

 the kind and quality of the food, and the state of the digestive functions. 

 Neither starch nor sugar, nor proteine compounds, alone or combined, occasion 

 this opacity in the chyle ; but it seems essentially dependent upon an admixture 



1 "Etudes Chimiques sur le Sang humain," p. 66 ; and 

 196, Am. Ed. 



2 "Medical Gazette," Oct. 10, 1845. 



Simon's Animal Chemistry," 



