EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON HEMOGLOBIN 187 



the hero — "no one in the boat that day rowed a faster stroke than 

 bow" — I quote from memory. 



But, seriously, what is to be said of such discrepancies? Adolf 

 and Henderson after pointing out in this connection what a very 

 complex affair is the oxidation of haemoglobin, say: 



In the light of these considerations it is perhaps not surprising that simple theory 

 and complex fact are apparently at variance. The discrepancies may be summarised 

 for the present in the statement that the active mass of haemoglobin differs in its 

 measurable properties in its behaviour towards oxygen. 



Perhaps, but it goes a little against the grain to leave the matter 

 there, and I should not be surprised if one day my curiosity will 

 drive me to explore, if possible, the reason why Hill and I obtained 

 so high a result. If I was asked to pick out the researches in my past, 

 in the purely experimental measurements of which I had least con- 

 fidence, that particular research would not be among them. 



It only remains to be said that several workers have made estimates 

 of the heat evolved when carbon monoxide unites with haemoglobin ; 

 it is a little but only a httle higher than when oxygen takes part in 

 the parallel reaction. The result is that the reaction, the displacement 

 of oxygen by CO from oxyhaemoglobin, is accompanied by an evolution 

 of heat which, according to Adolf and Henderson, is only about one- 

 fifth of that involved in the union of CO with reduced haemoglobin ; 

 the latter, according to them, being 15,000 calories per molecule of 

 COHb formed, the former about 3000 calories per molecule of oxygen 

 displaced by CO. The results obtained on CO -haemoglobin are more 

 uniform than those obtained on haemoglobin, but even they vary in 

 the case of Adolf and Henderson's experiments from 11,000 to 28,000 

 calories. 



REFERENCES 



(1) Barcroft and King. Journ. Physiol, xxxix. 374. 1909. 



(2) Bert, Paul. La Pression Barometrique. Paris, 1878. 



(3) HtJFNER. Zeitsch. f. Physiol. Chem. xii and xin. 1889. 



(4) Brown and Hill. Proc. Boy. Soc. B. xciv. 297. 1923, 

 (6) Barcroft and Hill. Journ. Physiol, xxxix, 411. 1910, 



(6) Bohr, Chr. Zentralb. f. Physiol, v. 187. 1901. 



(7) Henderson, L, J. Journ. Biol. Chem. xli. 401. 1920. 



(8) Hartridge and Roxjghton. Proc. Boy. Soc. A. civ. 395. 1923, 



(9) Ma^ela and Seliskar. Journ. Physiol, lx. 428. 1925. 



(10) Adolf and Henderson, L. J. Journ. Biol, Chem. l. 463. 1922. 

 [Contains an excellent bibliography of the subject.] 



(11) ToRUP. (Quoted irom Festschrift fur Olof Hammersten. 1906.) 



(12) Du Bois Raymond. Arch. f. Anat. u. Physiol, p. 237, 1914, 



