CARBON DIOXIDE OF THE BLOOD. 805 



Absorption experiments with blood-serum have shown us further 

 that the carbon dioxide which can be pumped out is in great part loosely 

 chemically combined, and fiom this loose combination of the carbon 

 dioxide it necessarily follows that the serum must also contain simply 

 absorbed carbon dioxide. For the form of binding of the carbon dioxide 

 contained in the serum or the plasma there are the three following pos- 

 sibilities: 1. A part of the carbon dioxide is simply absorbed; 2. Another 

 part is in loose chemical combination; 3. A third part is in firm chemical 

 combination. 



The quantity of physically dissolved carbon dioxide in the serum 

 cannot be higher than about 2 vols. per cent, as the quantity of carbon 

 dioxide in the plasma corresponding to 100 cc. of blood is given above 

 as 1.42 cc. 



The quantity of carbon dioxide in the blood-serum which is combined 

 as a firm chemical union depends upon the quantity of simple alkali 

 carbonate in the serum. This amount is not known, and it cannot be 

 determined either by the alkalinity found by titration, nor can it be cal- 

 culated from the excess of alkali found in the ash, because the alkali is not 

 only combined with carbon dioxide, but also with other bodies, especially 

 with protein. The quantity of carbon dioxide in firm chemical combi- 

 nation cannot be ascertained after pumping out in vacuo without the 

 addition of acid, because to all appearances certain active constituents 

 of the serum, acting like acids, expel carbon dioxide from the simple 

 carbonate. The quantity of carbon dioxide not expelled from dog- 

 serum by vacuum alone without the addition of acid amounts to 4.9 

 to 9.3 vols. per cent, according to the determinations of PFLUGER. 1 



From the occurrence of simple alkali carbonates in the blood-serum 

 it naturally follows that a part of the loosely combined carbon dioxide 

 of the serum which can be pumped out must exist as bicarbonate. The 

 occurrence of this combination in the blood-serum has also been directly 

 shown. In experiments with the pump, as well as in absorption experi- 

 ments, the serum behaves in other ways differently from a solution of bicar- 

 bonate, or carbonate of a corresponding concentration; and the action 

 of the loosely combined carbon dioxide in the serum can be explained 

 only by the occurrence of bicarbonate in the serum. By means of a 

 vacuum the serum always allows much more than one-half of the carbon 

 dioxide to be expelled, and it follows from this that in the pumping out 

 not only may a dissociation of the bicarbonate take place, but also a 

 conversion of the double sodium carbonate into a simple salt. As we 

 know of no other carbon-dioxide combination, besides the bicarbonate, 

 in the serum from which the carbon dioxide can be set free by simple 



1 E. Pfliiger's Ueber die Kohlensaure des Blutes, Bonn, 1864, 11. Cited from Zuntz 

 in Hermann's Handbuch, 65. 



