188 BLOOD. 



deducting the 0*114 of peroxide of iron found in it, there re- 

 mains 0*705-g- of mineral substances ; if now, we suppose by way 

 of illustration, that the clot is so loose that it contains enclosed 

 within it one-third of its weight of serum, then we should have 

 to deduct 0*273 for the enclosed serum from the 0*705 of salts, 

 and there would then remain only 0'432 of salts for the 66*667 

 of blood-cells (which correspond with two-thirds of the original 

 weight of the clot); hence, in 100 parts of moist blood-cells, 

 there would be only 0*648 of salts. If, however, we assume that 

 the blood-corpuscles lie so closely together, that the serum which 

 they enclose amounts to only one-fifth of the weight of the clot, 

 then, since 16'667 parts of serum contain 0*137 of salts, there will 

 remain only 0*568 of salts for the 83*333 parts of blood-corpuscles ; 

 that is to say, in 100 parts of blood-cells, there will be 0'681 of 

 salts. As we shall presently show, Schmidt has now found out a 

 method of discovering with tolerable accuracy the quantity of the 

 serum enclosed in the clot, and hence, of calculating the mineral 

 constituents occurring in the moist blood-cells. 



Although we are able to calculate the quantity of the mineral 

 constituents contained in the fresh blood-cells, the questions still 

 remain to be answered whether there are certain salts which 

 especially accumulate in the cells, and if so, which they are. 

 These questions have also been answered by C. Schmidt ; for he 

 has discovered that the fluid of the blood-cells (that is to say, the 

 water contained in the blood-corpuscles) contains in addition to the 

 organic matters, a preponderance of phosphates and potash-salts ; 

 so that, consequently, the phosphate of potash and the greater 

 part of the chloride of potassium pertain to the blood-cells, whilst 

 the chloride of sodium, with a little chloride of potassium and 

 phosphate of soda, is found in the plasma (serum + fibrin). In 

 the plasma, the organic materials are combined only with soda, 

 while in the blood-cells, the fatty acids and the globulin are com- 

 bined both with potash and soda. 



C. Schmidt, in analysing a specimen of blood, which contained 

 396*24 p. m. of blood-cells and 603*76 p. m. of intercellular fluid, 

 found 1*353 of chloride of potassium and 0*835 of phosphate of 

 potash in the former, while there were 3*417 parts of chloride of 

 sodium, besides 0*267 of phosphate of soda and 0*270 of chloride 

 of potassium in the latter. 



Schmidt has examined and tabulated the relations between potas- 

 sium and sodium, and between phosphoric acid and chlorine in the 

 blood-cells and in the intercellular fluid in several of the mammalia. 



