THE AMOUNT OF HAEMOGLOBIN. 



Stierlin 1 found individual variations in healthy men, amounting 

 to 1,650,000, and in healthy women to 2,230,000 per c.mm. E. Schiff 2 

 obtained more than 5,500,000 per c.mm. in new - born children : as 

 development progresses, the number 

 gradually sinks to about 5,000,000. 



There is normally no difference 

 between the number of corpuscles in 

 corresponding arteries and veins, pro- 

 vided there exists no congestion of 

 the part due to venous obstruction. 

 In such a case the exudation of 

 lymph from the capillaries increases 

 the number of corpuscles per cent. 

 in the blood of the vein. Capillary 

 blood is poorer in corpuscles than 

 that of the trunks, but the proportion 

 varies with their width and the rate 

 of the blood stream. 3 



Equally important for clinical pur- 

 poses, with the determination of the 

 number of red blood corpuscles as com- 

 pared with the normal, is the estima- 

 tion of the amount of haemoglobin, 



a- 



receiving the blood 



FIG. 22. Oliver's haemoglobinometer. e, glass cell for receiving the blood from the 

 pipette : the dilution is effected within the cell itself, a, standard graduations 

 made of tinted glass. To avoid multiplying these unduly they are furnished in tens 

 per cent., the intermediate divisions of the scale being obtained by superposing tinted 

 glass riders in a graduated series from 1 to 9. (These riders are not represented in 

 the figure). The apparatus is shown of the natural size. 



and the consequent determination of the proportionate amount of hemo- 

 globin per blood corpuscle. This may be expressed as a quotient thus : 



percentage amount of haemoglobin 100 -, -, 



r. - = - = 1 or normal 



percentage number ot corpuscles 100 



at least theoretically : practically it is found to vary in health from 



plains (Gompt. rend. Acad. d. sc., Paris, 1891, tome cxii. p. 298). Weiss, who kept rabbits 

 at high altitudes for about four weeks, and compared them with control animals at lower levels, 

 found an increase of corpuscles to the extent of 12 to 24 per cent., but no absolute increase of 

 haemoglobin in the whole body (Ztschr. f.pliysiol. Chem., Strassburg, 1897, Bd. xxii. S. 526). 



1 Deutsches Arch. f. Tclin. Med., Leipzig, 1889, Bd. xlv., S. 75 and 256. 



2 Ztschr. f. Heilk., 1890, Bd. xi. 



3 Cohnstein and Zunt/, Arch. f. d. ges. PhysioL, Bonn, Bd. xlii. S. 303. 



