THE BLOOD-CORPUSCLES 



1:4-10 



a healthy woman, but a variation of 1,000,000 up or down can hardly 

 be considered abnormal. In persons suffering from profound anaemia 

 the number may sink to 1,000,000 per cubic millimetre, or even 

 less. In one case of pernicious anaemia, only 143,000 corpuscles 



per cubic millimetre were present, the 

 lowest number recorded. In new-born 

 children the average is over 6,000,000, 

 and in the inhabitants of high plateaus 

 or mountains it may rise to 7,000,000 or 

 Fig. s.-Curveshowingthe Number ey en more. In the latter instance a 

 of Red Corpuscles at Different residence of a fortnight in the rarefied 



Ages (after Sorensen's Estima- a | r j s sufficient to bring about the in- 

 tions). The figures along the , , .j 



horizontal axis are years of age, crease > and a subsequent residence of a 



those along the vertical axis fortnight in the lowlands to annul it.* 

 millions of corpuscles per cubic j n certain pathological conditions a 



millimetre of blood. , j. i -L . 



great increase in the relative number of 



corpuscles (polycythsemia) is found. Over 13,000,000 erythrocytes 

 to the cubic millimetre have been counted in a case of cyanosis (im- 

 perfect oxygenation of the blood, with blueness of the lips, etc.), due 

 to congenital disease of the heart. An interesting form of experi- 

 mental polycythsemia is caused by injection of adrenalin. 



The number of white blood-corpuscles is on the average about 

 10,000 per cubic millimetre of blood, or 

 one leucocyte for every 500 red blood- 

 corpuscles. But if the count is made 

 when digestion is relatively inactive, 

 four to five hours after a meal, it gives 

 no more than 7,000 to the cubic milli- 

 metre. In new-born children the 

 average number is over 18,000 per 

 cubic millimetre. The total leucocyte 

 count, and still more the so-called dif- 

 ferential count, i.e., the determination 

 of the relative number of the different 

 kinds of leucocytes, is often resorted to 

 in the study of pathological conditions. 

 A distinct increase in the number is 

 designated leucocytosis. In leukaemia 

 the number of white corpuscles is 

 enormously increased on the average 

 to about 300,000, but in extreme cases 

 to 600,000 per cubic millimetre while at the same time the number 



* In 113 apparently healthy students (male) the average number of red 

 corpuscles was 5,190,000 per cubic millimetre. In 104 of these, the number 

 ranged from 4,000,000 to 6,400,000; in 71 (or 63 per cent, of the whole), from 

 4,400,000 to 5,500,000; in 3, from 3,500,000 to 3,900,000; in 5, from 6,500,000 

 to 7,000,000. In one observation the number reached 7,300,000. 



m 



Fig. 4. Curve showing Propor- 

 tion of White Corpuscles to Red 

 at Different Times of the Day 

 (after the Results of Hirt). At 

 I the morning meal was taken ; 

 at II the midday meal; at III 

 the evening meal. During 

 active digestion the number of 

 lymphocytes in the blood is 

 greatly increased, both abso- 

 lutely and relatively to the 

 number of the other leucocytes. 



