THE BLOOD. Ill 



nutritive liquids, may be increased or diminished 

 LEICHTENSTERN). The number of colorless blood-corpuscles may 

 be increased to such an extent, after a diet rich in albumin, that a 

 true digestion leucocytose appears (HOFMEISTER and POHL). After 

 a diet rich in fat the plasma becomes, even after a short time, more 

 or less milky-white, like an emulsion. The constitution of the 

 food acts essentially on the amount of haemoglobin in the blood. 

 The blood of herbivora is generally poorer in haemoglobin than 

 that from carnivora, and SUBBOTI^ has observed in dogs after a 

 partial feeding with food rich in carbohydrates that the amount of 

 haemoglobin sank from the physiological average of 137.5 p. m. to 

 103.2-93.7 p. m. According to LEICHTENSTERN, a gradual increase 

 in the amount of haemoglobin is found to take place in the blood 

 of human beings on enriching the food, and according to the same 

 investigator the blood of lean persons is generally somewhat richer 

 in haemoglobin than blood from fat ones of the same age. The 

 addition of iron salts to the food greatly influences the number 

 of blood-corpuscles and also the amount of haemoglobin they con- 

 tain, so that, according to NASSE, the iron, especially in combination 

 with fat, is active. According to the investigations of HAYEM and 

 MALLASSEZ, the iron preparations increase the amount of haemo- 

 globin contained in the blood in anaemia to a higher degree than 

 the number of blood-corpuscles. 



The Constitution of the Blood under Physiological Conditions 

 may be changed either by the appearance of a foreign substance or 

 by the quantities of any one or more of the blood constituents 

 being abnormally increased or diminished. Changes of this last 

 kind occur frequently. 



An increase in the number of red corpuscles, a true " PLETHORA 

 POLYCYTH^EMICA," takes place after transfusion of blood of the 

 same species of animal. According to the observations of PAKUM 

 and WORM MULLER, the blood-liquid is quickly eliminated and 

 transformed in this case, the water being eliminated principally 

 by the kidneys, and the albumin burned into urea, etc., while the 

 blood-corpuscles are preserved longer and cause a "POLYCYTH^- 

 MIA." A relative increase in the number of red corpuscles is 

 found after abundant transudations from the blood, as in cholera 

 and heart-failure, with considerable accumulation. 



