CHAP. XXVII.] THE H^EMATINE. 309 



Composition of one thousand parts of blood in men, derived 

 from eleven analyses. 



Mean. Maximum. Minimum. 



Water .... 779 760 800 



Red particles .... 14M 152 131 



Albumen .... 69-4 73 62 



Fibrine 2-2 3-5 1-5 



Extractive matters and free salts 6'8 8 5 



Fatty matters .... 1-6 3-255 1 



Composition of one thousand parts of blood in women, derived 

 from eight analyses. 



Mean. Maximum. Minimum. 



Water 791-1 773 813 



Bed particles . . ' . . 127*2 137-5 113 



Albumen 70'5 75-5 65 



Fibrine 2-2 2-5 1-8 



Extractive matters and free salts 7'4 8'5 6'2 



Fatty matters . . ^ 1'62 2-86 1 



Composition of the Red Particles, and of the fftematine. The 

 large proportion which the coloured particles form of the solids of 

 the blood, entitles them to the most attentive consideration of 

 Physiologists : they are more than fifty times the quantity of the 

 fibrine, and nearly double as much as the albumen. 



The red corpuscles consist, according to most chemists, of two 

 elementary substances, globuline and hsematine, the former is nearly 

 allied to, if not identical with albumen, and forms the solid part of 

 the blood-corpuscle, its cell-wall, and nucleus, when it exists ; the 

 latter is the colouring material, or blood-pigment. 



The following process is recommended by Figuier for the separa- 

 tion of the hsematine from the globuline. 



Defibrinated blood should be mixed with at least four times its 

 bulk of saturated solution of sulphate of soda ; the mixture must 

 then be thrown on a filter: the fluid and some corpuscles pass 

 through, leaving the mass of colored particles on the filter. This 

 must next be boiled in alcohol, slightly acidulated with sulphuric 

 acid : the hsematine will be thus dissolved, the colourless glo- 

 buline, in combination with some of the sulphuric acid, remaining 

 undissolved. 



The next step in this process is to add to the hot solution of 

 hsematine enough carbonate of ammonia to remove the sulphuric 

 acid; the fluid must then be filtered, to remove the sulphate of 

 ammonia thus formed, and the liquor must be exposed for eva- 

 poration; when, by this means, it is reduced one-twelfth of its 



