152 THE BLOOD. 
095 to T05 in men, and from "9 to 1 in women. 1 This " blood 
quotient " has been also termed " the worth " of a corpuscle. 2 
The more exact methods for the determination of the amount of haemo- 
globin in blood are dealt with elsewhere (see article on Haemoglobin). For 
clinical purposes a comparison with a standard colour of the colour of the 
blood diluted to a known amount is found to give sufficiently accurate results. 
The chief methods used have been — (1) That of Gowers, 3 who employs picro- 
carmine gelatin as a standard ; (2) that of F. Hoppe-Seyler, 4 who combines 
the haemoglobin with carbonic oxide, and compares it with a standard solution 
of CO haemoglobin ; and (3) that of v. Fleischl, who used a wedge of tinted 
glass as a comparison. The method of v. Fleischl is by far the most con- 
venient. It has been greatly improved by Oliver, who has adapted to it 
the principle of Lovibond's tintometer. 5 Thus modified it takes the form of 
a series of tinted glasses, one of which represents accurately the colour of a 
measured amount of normal blood diluted with water and placed in a flat 
glass cell of a certain size, whilst the others represent percentages of haemo- 
globin below and above the normal (Fig. 22). The blood is measured in a 
pipette similar to that shown in Fig. 21, a. 6 
The number of white corpuscles in a cubic millimetre of blood is 
usually stated as 10,000, but it varies greatly even in health. By far 
the larger proportion (70 to 90 per cent.) are of the finely granular 
oxyphil variety. 7 Of the rest less than 5 per cent, are coarsely granular 
oxyphil cells, while the remainder, except a few which are hyaline, 
contain basophil granules. 
Injection of many substances (peptones, nuclein, leech extract) into 
the vessels causes an immediate and marked diminution in the number 
of the leucocytes, chiefly affecting the finely granular kind (hucocytopenic 
phase, Lbwit) ; 8 it is followed by an increase in their number (leucocytotic 
phase). Acute local inflammation causes similar changes, but the 
diminution in the number of leucocytes also largely affects the coarsely 
granular cells, whereas the after increase is mainly in the finely 
granular. Hankin noticed that the blood clots more readily when the 
coarsely granular cell is scanty ; this may explain the more ready 
clotting of blood in inflammatory conditions. 
The blood possesses, in the presence of free oxygen, a certain power of 
producing oxidation in readily oxidisable substances, which may be added to 
it, such as salicylaldehyde. 9 This property it shares with some of the 
tissues (spleen, liver, lung, thyroid, kidney, thymus), while other tissues 
show no such tendency (muscle, brain, pancreas). The oxidation power is 
greater in young subjects than in the adult. 10 On the other hand, the blood 
contains a substance or substances (" reducing substances " of Pniiger) which 
greedily appropriate any free oxygen which may be present in the plasma, 
1 Oliver, loc. cit., p. 1705. 
2 Garrod. Med.-OMr. Trans., London, vol. lxxv. p. 191. 
3 Lancet. London, 1878, vol. ii. p. 822. 
4 Ztschr. f. pkysiol. Chcm., Strassbnrg, Bd. xvi. S. 505. See also G. Hoppe-Seyler, 
ibid., 1896, Bd. xxi. S. 461, and Winternitz, ibid., S. 468. 
5 Lovibond, "Measurement of Light and Colour Sensations." 
6 For more complete details of the method see Oliver, loc. cil., pp. 1699-1703. 
7 Sherrington, Proc. Eoy. Soc. London, 1894, vol. lv. ; Kanthack and Hardy, Jov.rn. 
Physiol., Cambridge and London, 1894, vol. xvii. p. 81. The earlier literature is given by 
Sherrington. 
8 "Studien z. Phys. u. Path. d. Blutes," Jena, 1S92. 
9 Salkowski, Ztschr. f. physiol. Chem., Strassburg, 1882, Bd. vii. S. 115 ; Centralll. f. 
d.med. Wissensch., Berlin, 1892, Bd. xxx. S. 489. 
10 Abelous and Biarnes, Arch, de physiol. norm, etpath., Paris, 1895, pp. 195 and 239. 
