314 DISTURBANCES OF CIRCULATION 



and enter the plasma. Blood from the jng'ular vein on this account 

 contains 20-25 per cent, more diffusible alkali than carotid blood 

 (Hamburger).® Since the bactericidal power of the blood has been 

 shown to increase directly with the alkalinity, this property may be 

 of importance in pathology. For example, the relative infrequency 

 of infections in the right side of the heart may not depend solely upon 

 lessened liability to endocardial damage, as generally considered, but 

 is possibly due in part to the greater bactericidal power of venous 

 blood. The same property probably explains the favorable results 

 obtained in the treatment of local infections by artificially produced 

 passive congestion." Too severe a stasis, with resultant edema, prob- 

 ably favors local infection.'''^ 



V. Fodor ^ found that animals surviving infections show an in- 

 creased blood alkalinity, w^hereas in those that died, the alkalinity 

 was decreased ; also, he found the resistance increased by intravenous 

 injections of alkalies. Other observers ° have noted a decrease in re- 

 sistance after injecting acids into the blood. According to Calabrese, 

 the alkalinity of the blood increases in immunization of animals 

 against toxins, while Cantani found the injection of toxin followed 

 by a decrease in alkalinity. Hamburger has shown that the bac- 

 tericidal power of the blood may be increased in vitro by shaking it 

 with CO2 as a result of the increased alkalinity, aided, perhaps, by 

 some slight bactericidal power of the CO, itself; he also found the 

 blood more strongly bactericidal in venous congestion than normally, 

 and the lymph from a congested part was also found more strongly 

 bactericidal than normal lymph. Hamburger ^^ has also found, how- 

 ever, that eheraotaxis is, if anything, slightly decreased under the in- 

 fluence of COo, as also is phagocytosis: large amounts of CO, may 

 reduce the phagocytic power for coal particles by 25-50 per cent. 

 Hamburger's results as to the bactericidal power of human blood in 

 venous stasis have been confirmed by Laqueur." Schiller ascribes this 

 not to increased alkalinity, but to disintegration of leucocytes with 

 liberation of bactericidal substances.^^*^ 



The blood in the veins and capillaries in passive congestion is gen- 

 erally richer in corpuscles than normal, ])erhaps because of some loss 

 of water,^- although this is not constant, applying particularly to 

 more recent or more local processes; in long-continued stasis, as in 

 congenital heart disease, the blood may be diluted. ^^ In the eoncen- 



<■> Vircliow's Arch., 1899 (156), 329; also, "OsmotisHuT Dnick \iiid loiu'iilehre." 



7 Roo Bier, "Hvpersemie als Heilmittel," Leipsic, 190;]. 

 7ii Glasewald, Cent. Grenz. Med. Cliir., 1915 (18), 50". 



8 Cent. f. 15akt., 1890 (7), 753. 



Literature, see Hanilmrfjer (loc. citfi), p. 281. 



10 Vircliow's Arch., 1899 (156). 329. 



11 Zoit. exp. Patli. u. Therap., 1905 (1), 670. 

 uaBeitr. klin. Cliir.. 1913 (84), IT. 1. 



i-^CIrawitz, Dent. Arch. f. klin. Med., 1895 (54), 588. 

 13 See Krehl, "Pathologische Pliysiologie," 1904, p. 201. 



