152 THE BLOOD IN LEUCOCYTHAEMIA. [BOOK I. 



The iron amounted to 0'319 parts in. 1000. This would correspond 

 to 74'1 parts of haemoglobin in 1000 of blood. 



Changes Experience has long shewn that in the treatment 



effected in of all forms of anaemia and especially of chlorosis, the 



the Blood by administration of preparations of iron possesses astound- 



use oTinm 18 ' 1 * n em " cac y an( ^ tnat tne J are often essential to recovery. 

 The clinical fact is borne out in a striking manner by 

 the results of chemical analysis, no less than by the results obtained 

 by the methods of enumeration. 



The following are the results of the analyses by Andral and Gavarret 

 of the blood in two cases of chlorosis, before and after the administration 

 of iron. The number of blood-corpuscles increased coincidently with the 

 improvement in the complexion and general condition of the patients. 



1ST CASE. Previous to use After use of 



of iron iron 



Water in 1000 parts . 8667 . 818-5 



Fibrin . . " . . 3-0 . 2'5 



Blood- corpuscles . . 46'4 . 95*7 



Residue of serum . . 83'9 . 83-3 



2ND CASE. Previous to use After use of 



of iron iron 



Water in 1000 parts . 852'8 . 831-5 



Fibrin ... 3-5 3-3 



Blood-corpuscles . . 49 '7 . 64 -3 



Residue of serum . . 94-0 . 1009 



Leucocythaemia (Leukaemia). 



In this disease the colourless corpuscles of the blood are enor- 

 mously increased in number, so that they may amount to one-sixth 

 or, it is said, even one-third the number of the coloured corpuscles. 

 The condition is most usually associated with great hypertrophy 

 of the spleen (splenic leukaemia), but more rarely with a general 

 hypertrophy of the lymphatic glands of the body (lymphatic leukaemia}. 

 Usually the colourless corpuscles do not differ in shape or size from 

 those in normal blood, though in certain cases (lymphatic leukaemia), 

 they appear to* be smaller in size. 



In certain cases of leucocythaemia, nucleated coloured corpuscles 

 are found which are similar to the nucleated coloured corpuscles 

 which occur in the blood of the embryo. It has been shewn by 

 Neumann 1 that when these cells occur the marrow of the bones is 

 affected (myelogenic leukaemia] ; there occur, indeed, cases of leuco- 

 cythaemia in which an affection of the marrow is the primary and 

 essential lesion, others, and these are probably the more numerous, 

 in which it occurs as a secondary phenomenon 2 . 



1 Neumann, "Ein Fall von Leukamie mit Erkrankung des Knochenmarkcs." 

 Archiv d. Heilkunde, VoL xi. (1870), p. 115. 



3 Eichhorst, Die progressive perniz lose Anamie. Leipzig, 1878, p. 6. 



