HEMOGLOBIN : ITS COMPOUNDS AND THE 

 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF ITS DECOMPOSITION. 



By ARTHUR GAMGEE. 



CONTENTS. Distribution in the Animal Kingdom, p. 186 Relations to other Con- 

 stituents of Red Corpuscles, p. 188 Arterin? and Phlebin? p, 190 Oxyhse- 

 moglobin, p. 193 Methods of obtaining, p. 194 Composition of, p. 197 

 Crystalline form, p. 203 Action of Reagents on, p. 207 Spectrum, p. 208 

 Spectrophotometry, p. 213 Photographic spectrum, p. 225 Haemoglobin, p. 

 229 Preparation of, p. 232 Colour and Spectrum, p. 233 Compounds with 

 Gases, p. 237 Derivatives and Products of Decomposition, p. 243. 



BY the term haemoglobin l is designated the highly complex, iron-con- 

 taining, crystalline colouring matter, which forms the most important 

 constituent of the coloured corpuscles of the blood, 2 and in virtue of 

 which they perform their function as the oxygen-carriers of the 

 organism. This body possesses the remarkable property of linking 

 to itself a molecule of oxygen, so as to form an easily dissociated 

 compound, which is termed oxyhsemoglobin, to distinguish it specifically 

 from the colouring matter which has parted with its dissociable 

 oxygen ; for the latter some retain the name haemoglobin, though 

 it is commonly, and by English writers usually, distinguished by 

 the term reduced haemoglobin. 



Both oxyhsemoglobin and reduced hemoglobin invariably (Hlifner) 

 exist side by side in varying proportions in the living blood; the 

 former being most abundant in arterial, the latter in venous, blood. 

 In the present chapter the term haemoglobin will be generally employed 

 when speaking of the blood-colouring matter, without specific reference 

 to its relation to oxygen ; the term reduced hemoglobin being invariably 

 employed when reference is made to the colouring matter, deprived of 

 its dissociable, or, as we may term it, in consideration of the part which 

 it plays in the organism, its respiratory oxygen. 



Should we speak of "haemoglobin" or "the heemoglobins," of 

 " oxy haemoglobin '' or "the oxyhsemoglobins ? " In a subsequent 

 section, it will be shown that the blood-colouring matter is by no 

 means absolutely identical in all animals, but that it exhibits con- 

 siderable variations in certain physical characters, and in chemical 



1 Hoppe-Seyler, to whom we owe a great part of our knowledge of the blood-colouring 

 matter, first suggested this term. "Urn Verwechselungen zu vermeiden nenne ich das 

 Blutfarbstoff ' Hsemoglobulin oder Haemoglobin,' " Virchows Archiv. 1864, Bd. xxix. S. 

 223. 



2 Haemoglobin constitutes about 40 '4 per cent, of the weight of the moist corpuscles, 

 and about 95 '5 per cent, of all the organic substances contained in them. 



