POLYCYTHEMIA 61 



cythemia or increase in the number of red corpuscles per cmm., 

 which is found by examining a small quantity of blood, should be 

 kept in mind; also the distinction between oligemia or diminution 

 in the total quantity of blood and oligocythemia or diminution in 

 the number of red corpuscles per cmm. 



Polycythemia. An increased number of red corpuscles per 

 cmm. does not, in many cases, indicate that there is an actual in- 

 crease in the total number in the body; there are cases where a 

 polycythemia is interpreted as indicating an increase in the total 

 number. Any condition producing a concentration of the blood 

 by withdrawing fluid from it (anhydremia) will produce a poly- 

 cythemia. Such a change is produced by profuse sweating, by 

 watery diarrhea from the administration of purgatives and in 

 infectious diseases, by continued vomiting, by withholding water 

 and by rapid exudation. Czerny found that cats kept 36 hours 

 in a warm dry room without water lost weight and showed a 

 marked increase in red corpuscles, in one case rising to 10,000,000 

 per cmm. In a case of cirrhosis of the liver with ascites v. Limbeck 

 found 3,280,000 red corpuscles before tapping and removing 18 

 liters of fluid. On the following day the red corpuscles were 

 5,160,000 per cmm., rapid exudation having deprived the blood 

 of a large amount of fluid. In conditions in which there is venous 

 stasis with increased exudation of fluid from the blood vessels, a 

 considerable polycythemia has been observed. Some of these 

 conditions are cardiac insufficiency, pneumonia, emphysema and 

 thrombosis of the lungs, asphyxia. Well marked examples are 

 found in the final stage of pneumonia when the heart has become 

 too weak to prevent the blood accumulating in the veins. Very 

 high counts are often found in horses moribund or nearly so in 

 cases of fibrinous pneumonia, when there is actually an anemia 

 present. 



Moore, Haring and Cady found an increase in three horses of 

 2,965,000, 3,084,000 and 2,803,000 red corpuscles after complete 

 chloroform anesthesia of from one and one-half to two hours. In 

 the first two cases operations with considerable hemorrhage were 

 performed; in the last case the only operation was puncture of 

 the guttural pouch, a trifling one, with no hemorrhage. A local 

 polycythemia may be produced by ligating a part or by pressure 

 of a tumor producing passive congestion. In cases of partial 



