x HAEMOGLOBIN 467 



The red blood-corpuscles of mammals are composed for the greater 

 part of haemoglobin, for Hoppe-Seyler 1 found that dried red blood- 

 corpuscles contain in man 94*3, in the dog 8 6 '5, in the hedgehog 

 92-25, in the goose 62'65. and in the grass-snake 4670 per cent of 

 haemoglobin. More recently Abderhalden 2 has studied the percentage 

 composition of different species of blood. The remainder is com- 

 posed of the framework, an envelope, and in non-mammals also of the 

 nuclei. 



Peskind 3 and R. du Bois Reymond 4 have studied the conditions 

 under which blood becomes laked. Peskind believes that ether, e.g., 

 acts on the cholesterin- and lecithin-envelopes of the red blood-corpuscles 

 in some such way as to permit of the diffusion outwards of the blood- 

 pigment, even before the cholesterin and lecithin have been extracted 

 from the envelopes by the ether. 



For*the estimation of haemoglobin in the blood a number of colori- 

 metric methods have been devised by Gowers, Hoppe-Seyler, 5 Giacosa, 6 

 Fleischl, 7 Zangemeister, 8 Gartner, 9 Miescher and Veillon, 10 Oliver and 

 Haldane. 11 Haldane's modification of the instrument of Gowers gives 

 the most accurate results. In this apparatus the standard coloured 

 liquid is a 1 per cent solution of blood of 18*5 per cent oxygen- 

 capacity, saturated with CO and sealed up in a glass tube. The 

 solution is then unalterable. The blood to be examined is saturated 

 with CO and diluted in a graduated tube till the tint of the standard 

 solution is reached. The results are reliable to within 1 per cent. 

 See p. 499. 



0. and R. Adler 12 have devised a special method for the recogni- 

 tion of blood, which is based on the oxidising power of the haemoglobin, 

 for the leucobase of malachite-green and alcoholic benzidin solutions 



1 F. Hoppe-Seyler, Med.-chem. Unters. p. 391 (1868). 



2 E. Abderhalden, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem. 25. 65 (1898). 



3 S. Peskind, Amer. Journ. of Physiology, 12. 184 (1904). 



4 R. du Bois Reymond, Zentralbl. f. Physiol. 19. 65 (1905). 



5 F. Hoppe-Seyler, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem. 16. 504 (1892) ; G. Hoppe-Seyler, 

 ibid. 21. 461 (1896) ; H. Winternitz, ibid. 21. 468 (1896). 



' 6 P. Giacosa, Malys JahresbericM fur Tierchemie, 26. 140 (1896). 



7 E. v. Fleischl, Med. Jahrbiicher 1885,.p. 425. 



8 W. Zangemeister, Zeitschr. f. Biologic, 33. 72 (1896). 



9 G. Gartner, Miinchener med. WocJienschr. 1901, No. 50. 



10 Miescher and Veillou, Schmiedeberg's Archiv f. experiment. Pathol. u. Pharm. 

 39. 385 (1897) ; Wolf, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem. 26. 452 (1899) ; R. Magnus, 

 Schmiedeberg's Archiv f. experiment. Pathol. u. Pharm. 44. 68 (1900) ; Franz Miiller, 

 Archiv f. (Anal, u.) Physiol. 1901, p. 443. Compare also J. Haldane, Journ. of 

 Physiology, 26. 497 (1901). 



11 J. Haldane, Journ. of Physiol. 26. 497 (1900-1901). 



12 O. and R. Adler, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Clienn. 41. 59 (1904). 



