THE BLOOD. 97 



That in the red corpuscles alkali phosphate occurs in such quanti- 

 ties that it may be of importance in the combination with carbon 

 dioxide is not to be doubted, and we must admit that from the 

 diphosphate, by a greater partial pressure of the carbon dioxide, 

 monophosphate and alkali carbonate are formed,while by a lower par- 

 tial pressure of the carbon dioxide the mass action of the phosphoric 

 acid comes again into play, so that with the carbon dioxide becom- 

 ing free, a re-formation of alkali diphosphate takes place. It is 

 generally admitted that the blood-coloring matters, especially the 

 oxy haemoglobin, which can expel carbon dioxide from sodium car- 

 bonates in vacuo (PREYER), act like an acid; and as the globulin also 

 acts like an acid (see below), this body may also occur in the blood- 

 corpuscles as alkali combination. The alkali of the blood-corpuscles 

 must therefore, according to the law of the action of the mass be- 

 tween the carbon dioxide, phosphoric acid, and the others, be con- 

 sidered as active acid constituents of the blood-corpuscles, and among 

 these especially the blood-coloring matters, as the globulin can 

 hardly be of importance because of its small quantity. By greater 

 mass-action or greater partial pressure of the carbon dioxide, bicar- 

 bonate must be formed at the expense of the diphosphates and the 

 other alkali combinations, while at a diminished partial pressure of 

 the same gas, with the escape of carbon dioxide, the alkali diphos- 

 phate and the other alkali combinations must be re-formed at the 

 cost of the bicarbonate. 



Haemoglobin must nevertheless, as the investigations of SET- 

 SCHENOW and ZUNTZ and especially those of BOHR and TORUP 

 have shown, be able to hold the carbon dioxide loosely combined 

 even in the absence of alkali. BOHR has also found that the dis- 

 sociation curve of the carbon-dioxide haemoglobin corresponds 

 essentially to the curve of the absorption of carbon-dioxide, from 

 which ground he and TORUP consider the haemoglobin itself as 

 of importance in the binding of the carbon dioxide of the blood 

 and not its alkali combinations. In regard to this question the 

 conditions are not quite clear. If carbon dioxide is allowed to act 

 on haemoglobin, it unites (BoHR, TORUP) with the colored atomic- 

 group of the haemoglobin, splitting off albumin, and from this 

 haemoglpbin, so decomposed, oxyhsemoglobin cannot be formed by 

 the action of oxygen. According to BOHR, for each gramme of 



