SECTION VII. 



ON THE RESULTS OF 500 QUANTITATIVE TESTS WITH 

 PRECIPITATING ANTISERA UPON THE BLOODS OF 

 PRIMATES, INSECTIVORA, CARNIVORA, UNGULATA, 

 CETACEA, MARSUPIALIA, AND AVES. 



BY GEORGE H. F. NUTTALL, M.A., M.D., PH.D., 



AND T. S. P. STRANGEWAYS, M.A., M.R.C.S., 



Demonstrator in Pathology, Cambridge. 



IN view of the crudity of the methods employed and the many possi- 

 bilities of error, it is not a little surprising that the figures obtained in 

 the following quantitative tests are in such accord. The combined 

 qualitative and quantitative tests demonstrate certain broad facts, 

 namely, the persistence of blood affinities amongst groups of animals 

 which have descended from a common stock. The difficulties in the 

 way of determining finer differences appear to be considerable, owing to 

 the variations in the reacting power of the rabbits treated with a given 

 blood, possibly also to the nature of the animal yielding the blood in- 

 jected (even if it be normal), but especially to much of the blood 

 injected being derived from diseased animals. The bloods we have 

 tested, also those we have used for the treatment of rabbits, with few 

 exceptions, have been derived from animals dying at the Zoological 

 Society's Gardens, London. These animals have died from various 

 diseases, and in the majority of cases it has been impossible to 

 determine the exact cause of death. In some cases the animals died 

 naturally, and the blood was obtained from the cadaver at variable 

 periods after death, in other cases they were killed and the blood 

 collected immediately. In some cases it appears reasonable to suppose 

 that fluids derived from extravasations into the body cavities have 

 become mixed with the blood, although precautions were taken against 



