

VELOCITY OF REACTION. HETEROGENEOUS SYSTEMS III 



be added without producing a sensible effect on 10 c.c. 

 of an n per cent suspension of horse-blood. 



The calculated values are obtained under the assumption 

 that 0.6 c.c. of the 0.05 n. NaOH solution, which corresponds 

 to 0.082 c.c. of the 0.037 n. NH 3 solution, are equivalent to 

 10 c.c. of a 20 per cent suspension in producing the first 

 trace of haemolysis. This idea of the equivalency is evi- 

 dently true, though the time of reaction was here only one 

 hour at 37 C. To this corresponds indeed the fact found 

 by Madsen and Walbum that equivalent quantities of the 

 four bases investigated (namely, NH 3 , NaOH, KOH, and 

 Ba(OH) 2 ) must be added to the same quantity of blood to 

 produce the first trace of haemolysis. For 19 different acids 

 the corresponding quantity was in all cases equivalent, but 

 it was double as great as for the bases. The time of 

 reaction was 24 hours at 16.2 C. Here we have evidently 

 not to do with a velocity of reaction, but with a strong 

 chemical binding of the acids or the bases to some sub- 

 stance in the erythrocytes. 



The same is true according to the experiments of 

 Madsen, Walbum, and Noguchi 1 even for the other reaction 

 which they observed, which was not far from complete 

 haemolysis, if we regard the figures for prolonged times and 

 high temperature (37-39), where the reaction has nearly 

 come to an end. The three bases yield for this end-value : 

 KOH, 0.008; NaOH, 0.008; and NH 3 , 0.0075 c.c. respec- 

 tively of i n. solutions; within the errors of observation 

 these quantities are equivalent. For the acids examined 

 we find the following figures (in c.c. of i n. solutions): 

 formic, 0.012; acetic, 0.015 ; propionic, 0.017; butyric, 0.017; 



1 Madsen, Noguchi, and Walbum : Oversigt t 1904, No. 6, pp. 425 and 447. 



