276 BLOOD. 



of the function of the blood-cells, that it requires no further 

 exposition. The second ground supporting the idea of the capacity 

 of the blood-cells for absorbing gases, is that diluted heematin or 

 copiously watered blood which contains only some few recognizable 

 corpuscles, whose contents (the hsematin, &c.) are for the most 

 part in a state of solution, is still susceptible to the action of 

 carbonic acid and oxygen ; the alteration of colour cannot pos- 

 sibly depend in this case on alterations in the form of the blood- 

 corpuscles. The heematin of Lecanu and Mulder is not the same 

 as that contained in the fresh blood-cells ; although the solution of 

 the blood-cells very probably does not play the part ascribed to it, 

 the recently dissolved hsematin must yet participate with the 

 blood-corpuscles in the capacity for absorbing gases. Marchand's 

 experiment simply proves that the blood corpuscles are not 

 capable of generating carbonic acid by their own unaided power, 

 or when removed from the body and brought in contact with 

 oxygen. With respect to Hannover's view, independently of 

 the circumstance that it admits of several modes of interpreta- 

 tion, it by no means overthrows the opinion that the blood-cells 

 possess this capacity; for if a person having few blood-cells 

 exhales as much carbonic acid as another whose blood is richer in 

 corpuscles, it does not follow from this that the production of 

 carbonic acid directly depends upon the blood-corpuscles, but 

 seems rather to show the very reverse. The blood-cells, in all 

 probability, absorb most of their carbonic acid after they reach the 

 capillaries, and they are obviously able to take up a larger quantity 

 than they commonly convey to the venous blood : thus 80 or 100 

 corpuscles of chlorotic blood may absorb the same quantity of car- 

 bonic acid as that which is generally absorbed by 120 corpuscles of 

 healthy blood in the capillaries ; these 80 cells may therefore, in 

 like manner, exhale as much carbonic acid in the lungs as the 

 120. Then, moreover, the intercellular fluid exhibits a greater 

 capacity for dissolving carbonic acid than oxygen, and it would not 

 therefore require the co-operation of the blood-corpuscles to convey 

 to the lungs the carbonic acid transuded into the capillaries. We 

 therefore consider the view which ascribes to the blood-corpuscles 

 the function of absorbing oxygen, and giving it partially off in 

 the capillaries, not only to be uncontroverted, but to be completely 

 proved. 



The question here arises, whether the oxygen is only mechani- 

 cally taken up by the blood-cells or loosely combined with them, 

 or whether it is chemically united with some of the individual 



