THE BLOOD AND THE LYMPH. 335 



diately destructive influence. Donders and Moleschott have 

 carefully investigated the reactions, especially of such soluble 

 salts as exist in the blood, and have found that a concentrated 

 solution (1 part salt, 7 parts water) added to an equal volume of 

 blood, diminishes all the cells, and reddens the blood. The 

 cells are least affected by the hydrochlorates of soda and 

 potass, much more by the phosphate and carbonate of soda, 

 and nitrate of potass, most of all by the sulphates of soda and 

 potass. When diluted (1 part salt, 17 parts water), all these 

 salts colour the blood a dark wine-red, and produce a distension 

 of the cells, rendering them pale, and completely dissolving 

 them at the end of four or five hours ; in this regard the soda- 

 compounds, except common salt, which exerts no destructive 

 action, prove more energetic than those of potass. I find 

 changes similar to those caused by the salts, to take place on the 

 addition of alcohol, tincture of iodine, chromic acid, and creosote, 

 the first two of which merely render the blood-globules smaller 

 and corrugated, the latter also causing them to become granular 

 internally. In this respect the action of creosote is the most 

 remarkable, which transforms the blood-corpuscles partly into 

 perfectly opaque, even fat-like glistening granular and homo- 

 geneous granules and globules, and partly into very beautiful 

 clear vesicles, which may even be rendered polygonal by their 

 mutual pressure. Lastly, it is very important to notice the 

 influence of oxygen and of carbonic acid on the blood, which 

 by their reception into the interior of the cells, both in the 

 body (in the pulmonary and systemic capillaries) as well as 

 externally to it, as proved by experiment, produce sometimes a 

 brighter, sometimes a darker colour in it. This takes place 

 without any change of form in the blood-corpuscles (J. Miiller, 

 and Todd and Bowman, in opposition to Nasse and Harless), 

 and the experiment may be alternately made several times in 

 succession with the same blood without any alteration of the 

 corpuscles (Magnus, Bischoff, De FEspinasse, and Renemann, in 

 opposition to Harless). Those gases also act upon the colouring 

 matter of the blood, when isolated, in the same way as upon the 

 corpuscles (Magnus, March and), and it is probable that the 

 change of colour is not connected with any chemical change in 

 the hcematin, but is a physical action of a peculiar kind, ana- 

 logous to similar changes of colour in other fluids caused by 

 the absorption of gases. 



