COMPOSITION OF RED CORPUSCLES. 
155 
The red corpuscles. — These consist of a delicate external envelope 
enclosing coloured fluid contents. 1 In all vertebrates below mammals 
l hey contain a nucleus, the chief chemical constituent of which is 
Quclein (see p. 65). 
The organic matter in one hundred parts of dried red corpuscles 
consists of:' 2 — 
Human Blood. 
Goose"s Blood. 
11. 
I. 
Proteids and 
nuclein . 
Hemoglobin 
Lecithin 
Cholestei in 
12-24 
86-79 
0-72 
0-25 
5-10 12*55 
94-30 S6-50 
0-35 0-59 
0-25 0-36 
36-11 
62-65 
0-46 
0.48 
Goose's blood was taken as an instance of one in which nucleated 
red corpuscles are present ; the higher percentage of proteids apparent 
in this is due to the included nuclein. 
The mineral constituents of the red corpuscles vary greatly in 
relative quantity in different species of animals. Thus potassium con- 
stitutes -10-89 per cent, of the total ash of human red corpuscles, and 
sodium only 9'71, whereas in the dog the percentage of potassium is 
6 - 07, and of sodium 36 - 17 (C. Schmidt). 
The remarkable excess of potassium over sodium salts is the opposite to 
their relative proportion in plasma. 
The chief organic constituent of the corpuscles, haemoglobin, will be 
considered in a separate article. The other organic constituents consist 
of nucleo-proteid, lecithin, and cholesterin. 
The nucleo-proteid of the reel corpuscle. — Wooldridge's 3 method for 
obtaining the nucleo-proteid consists in centrifugalising defibrinated 
blood repeatedly with a 1 per cent, sodium chloride solution until all 
the serum is washed away. The red corpuscles are then laked by 
the addition of water, and the mixture is shaken with a little ether, 
to assist the solution ; the white corpuscles are allowed to settle, 
or removed by the centrifuge. To the clear but highly coloured 
decanted fluid a little 1 per cent, solution of acid sodium sulphate is 
added. This causes a considerable precipitate of nucleo-proteid which 
is chiefly derived from the red corpuscles, but a small part of which 
may come from the white corpuscles and blood platelets. 
The material thus obtained w T as shown by Ktihne, 4 who used a rather 
different method of separating it, to possess fibrino-plastic properties. It 
was further examined by Halliburton and Friend, 5 who found that it was 
1 Schafer in Quain's "Anatomy," 10th edition. 1893, vol. i. pt. 2, p. 210. 
2 Hoppe-Seyler and Jiidell, Med. Ohem. Untersuch., Berlin, 1866, Heft 3. Manasse, 
Ztschr. f. physiol. Chew,., Strassburg, Bd. xiv. S. 452, gives the following percentages — 
Lecithin, 1*687; Cholesterin, 0'151. 
3 Arch. f. Physiol., Leipzig, 1881, S. 387. 
4 "Lehibuch," S. 193. 
5 Journ. Physiol., Cambridge and London, 1886, vol. x. p. 532. 
