80 THE CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE STROMA. [BOOK I. 



I. According to Carl Schmidt 1000 parts of moist blood corpuscles 

 contain 



Water 688 parts. 



Solid constituents &F" 30 ^* 



(Mineral . 8'12 



II. According to Hoppe-Seyler and Jiidell 1 



100 parts of dried corpuscles contain 



Human Blood.^ Blood of Dog< Blood of ^^ 



Proteids . 12-24 . 5-10 . 12-55 . 3641 

 Haemoglobin 86*79 . 94-30 . 86'50 . 62-65 

 Lecithin . 072 . 0-35 . 059 . 0-46 



Cholesterin . 0'25 . 0'25 . 0'36 . 0'48 



We shall now more in detail examine the various proximate con- 

 stituents of the corpuscles. 



The Stroma and the proteids associated with it. 



Mode of I* nas been asserted (p. 74) that histologists have 



obtaining the abandoned the view that the coloured corpuscle is a 

 stroma for vesicular body possessed of a cell-wall enclosing more 

 microscopic or } ess 1^ contents, and have come to consider the 

 examination. -. , * -, , . . TIP i /> 



coloured corpuscle as being a viscous solid formed ot 



a stroma or framework in which are imbedded the other proximate 

 principles. 



In order to demonstrate the existence of the stroma, defibrinated 

 blood is allowed to flow drop by drop into a platinum or silver dish, 

 which is cooled to 13 C., by immersion in a freezing mixture, care 

 being taken that the blood contained in the capsule is frozen before 

 more is added. The frozen blood is then thawed and heated to 20 C. 

 The process of freezing and thawing may with advantage be repeated 

 several times. The blood will be then found to have lost its opaque 

 red colour and to present the appearance of a transparent lake- 

 coloured fluid. On microscopic examination the non-nucleated 

 coloured blood corpuscles are found deprived of all colour, sometimes 

 retaining their original shape, but more frequently either more globular 

 or more shrivelled than normal. The stromata retain, according to 

 Rollett, the extensibility and the elasticity of the original blood 

 corpuscles. Under the influence of the changes of temperature the 

 haemoglobin has entirely dissolved in the serum, leaving the colour- 

 less stroma in which it had been deposited. 



The stroma is insoluble in serum, dilute solution of salt and of sugar, 

 and in distilled water at a temperature below 60 C., but readily 

 soluble in serum containing alcohol, ether, or chloroform : in solutions 

 of caustic alkalies: and in solutions of alkaline salts of the bile acids 

 (Kiihne). 



1 Jiidell, " Zur Blutanalyse." Hoppe-Seyler's Med. Chem. Untersuchungen. Heft 

 in. p. 386. 



