326 THE BLOOD. 



The quantity of blood in the different organs depends essentially on 

 their activity. During work the exchange of material in an organ is 

 more pronounced than during rest, and the increased metabolism is 

 connected with a more abundant flow of blood. Although the total 

 quantity of blood in the body remains constant, the distribution of the 

 blood in the various organs may be different at different times. As a 

 rule the quantity of blood in an organ is an approximate measure of the 

 more or less active metabolism going on in it, and from this point of 

 view the distribution of the blood in. the different organs is of interest. 

 According to RANKED to whom we^are especially indebted for our knowl- 

 edge of the relation of the activity of the organs to the quantity of blood 

 contained therein, of the total quantity of blood (in the rabbit) about 

 one-fourth comes to the muscles in rest, one-fourth to the heart and the 

 large blood-vessels, one-fourth to the liver, and one-fourth to the other 

 organs. 



Wissensch., 1875, and Die Transfusion des Blutes, Leipzig, 1875; Worm Mailer, 

 Transfusion und Plethora; Ponfick, Virchow's Arch., 62; Tsehirjew, Arbeiten aus 

 der physiol. Anstalt zu Leipzig, 1874, 292; Forster, Zeitschr. f. Biologic, 11; Panum, 

 Virchow's Arch., 29. 



1 Die Blutvertheilung und der Thatigkeitswechsel des Organe, Leipzig, 1871. 



