HEMOGLOBINE. 



95 



Fig. 19. 



carbon derived from the imperfect combustion of animal substances. 

 Burned bones are generally employed for this purpose, their combustion 

 having been carried on with a scanty supply of air, so that while the 

 hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen are driven off in the form of gaseous 

 combinations, the carbon remains behind. If a fluid containing either 

 of the coloring matters be mixed with a sufficient quantity of this char- 

 coal and filtered, the filtered fluid will pass through colorless. Albu- 

 minous substances are also retained upon the filter when treated with 

 animal charcoal ; while glucose and other crystallizable and saline mat- 

 ters pass through freely in solution. 



The animal coloring matters most distinctly recognized are those of 

 the blood, the blackish-brown solid tissues, the bile, and the urine. 



Hemoglobine, C 900 H 960 N 154 Fe,S 3 179 . 



This is the coloring matter of the red globules of the blood, the most 

 abundant and important of all the substances belonging to this group. 

 It constitutes much the largest proportion of the solid ingredients of 

 the blood-globules, amounting in all probability to from 25 to 30 per 

 cent, of their weight in the 

 fresh condition. It is also 

 found, in much smaller quan- 

 tity, in the substance of the 

 muscular tissue, of which it 

 forms the coloring principle. 

 It crystallizes in well marked 

 forms, which vary somewhat 

 in different species of ani- 

 mals; but are all, so far as 

 accurately known, either 

 rhombic or hexagonal tables 

 or prisms. It is soluble in 

 water, in very dilute alcohol, 

 and in dilute solutions of 

 albumen, of the alkalies and 

 their carbonates, and of so- 

 dium and ammonium phos- 

 phates. It is insoluble in 

 strong alcohol, in ether, and 



in the volatile and fatty oils. In almost every condition it is readily 

 decomposed. According to Preyer, 1 crystals which have been thoroughly 

 dried at a temperature below the freezing point become, after a time, 

 decomposed, and lose their color and solubility, even at ordinary tem- 

 peratures. A watery solution of hemoglobine kept at any temperature 

 above (32 F.) becomes altered in the course of twenty-four hours, 

 and if heated to 64 (147 F.) it is at once decomposed. 



HEMOGLOBINE CRYSTALS; from human blood. 

 (Funke.) 



1 Die Blutkrystalle. Jena, 1871, p. 58. 



