RED GLOBULES OF THE BLOOD, 



247 



Fig. 81. 



RED GLOBULES OF THK BLOOD, after the 

 imbibition of water. 



or other animal fluids of less density than the plasma of the blood. 

 Dilute acetic acid, added to the blood, instantly extracts the coloring 

 matter of the red globules, reducing them to the condition of pale and 

 nearly invisible colorless bodies. 

 After the action of water, 

 however, these colorless cells 

 remain for a long time, and are 

 dissolved very slowly in com- 

 parison with the coloring mat- 

 ter. 



Dilute alkaline solutions, on 

 the contrary, dissolve readity 

 the whole substance of the 

 blood-globules. A solution of 

 potassium hydrate, in the pro- 

 portion of ten per cent., acts 

 most rapidly in this manner. 

 Solutions of soda and ammonia 

 have a similar effect, although 

 less promptly than the preced- 

 ing- 

 Solutions of sodium glycocholate or taurocholate, in any grade of 

 concentration, or of the fresh bile itself, as shown by Kiihne, have also 

 the property of dissolving completely the red globules of the blood. 



Composition of the Red Globules. The red globules are composed of 

 an albuminous and a coloring matter, together with mineral salts and a 

 certain proportion of water. According to Lehmann, the water of the 

 red globules amounts to 688 per thousand parts, and a little over 8 

 parts per thousand consist of mineral salts, namely, sodium and potas- 

 sium chlorides, phosphates, and sulphates, together with lime and mag- 

 nesium phosphates. 



By far the most important ingredient of the red globules is undoubt- 

 edly their coloring matter, or hemoglobine, the main characters of which 

 have been described in Chapter Y. According to the estimates of 

 Preyer, 1 founded upon the observed quantity of iron as an ingredient, 

 the average proportion of hemoglobine in healthy human blood is 12.34 

 per cent. As the globules themselves constitute 45 per cent of the 

 whole blood, the quantity of hemoglobine in each blood globule is 

 about 27 per cent, of its entire mass, or 86 per cent, of its solid ingre- 

 dients. It is, accordingly, as regards its quantity, the principal substance 

 of which the globules are composed. 



In the fresh globule, the hemoglobine is united with another substance 

 which is colorless and undoubtedly albuminous in its nature, and which 

 forms a substratum for the other ingredients of the globules. This 

 colorless matter is less soluble in water than the hemoglobine, and it is 



Die Blutkrystalle, Jena, 1871, p. 117. 



