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VICTOR C. MYERS 



blood serum proteins the stability of the normal level appears to be fairly 

 well maintained under widely varying conditions of health and disease. 



Serum Proteins (Albumin and Globulin). The subject of the serum 

 proteins in man has recently been very carefully considered by Rowe (/>), 

 who has employed the inierorefractometric method of Robertson for their 

 study in normal and a number of different pathological conditions. In a 

 series of twenty-two normal cases the serum albumin was found to vary be- 

 tween 4.6 and 6.7 per cent, the serum globulin between 1.2 and 2.3 per cent, 

 the total serum protein between 6.5 and 8.2 per cent and the nonproteins 

 between 1.1 and 1.3 per cent, while the percentage of globulin in the total 

 protein varied from 16 to 32 per cent. Muscular activity, even of the 

 simplest sort, increases total serum proteins, this increase occurring more 

 in the albumin than the globulin fraction. In three cases with severe 

 muscular work Rowe (c) found the total protein increased from 1.1 to 1.9 

 per cent and the albumin from 0.8 to 1.5 per cent, while in one case with 

 light exercise the total protein was increased 0.5 per cent and the albumin 

 0.3 per cent. 



The following table compiled from data given by Rowe gives a com- 

 parative idea of the blood serum proteins in the normal human subject and 

 in a variety of pathological conditions. 



BLOOD SEBUM PROTEINS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE (AVERAGES) 



From the above it is apparent that in syphilis the globulin is definitely 

 increased, while the total protein remains about normal. In pneumonia 

 the globulin is increased more in relation to the total protein than in 

 syphilis, while the total protein is reduced, due probably in large measure 

 to a dilution of the blood serum by water retention, which occurs in fever. 

 The lowest values for total serum proteins are obtained in chronic nephritis 

 with edema, due probably to chronic intoxication as well as hydrcmia. 



