THE CIRCULATING LIQUIDS OF THE BODY ig 



and a subsequent residence of a fortnight in the lowlands to 

 annul it.* 



The number of white blood-corpuscles is on the average about 

 10,000 per cubic millimetre of blood, or one leucocyte for every 

 500 red blood-corpuscles. But if the count is made when 

 digestion is relatively inactive, four to five hours after a meal, 

 it gives no more than 7,000 to the cubic millimetre. In new- 

 born children the average number is over 18,000 per cubic 

 millimetre. In leukaemia the number of white corpuscles is 

 enormously increased on the average to about 300,000, but in 

 extreme cases to 600,000 per cubic millimetre while at the same 

 time the number of the red corpuscles is diminished ; and the 

 ratio of white to red may approach 1:4. As the anaemia 

 rapidly advances towards the fatal termination of an acute case, 

 and the erythrocyte count falls to 1,000,000, or even less, the 

 ratio may come still nearer to unity. An increase in the number 

 of leucocytes has also been ob- 

 served in certain infective dis- 

 eases as part of the inflamma- 

 tory reaction. There are also 

 physiological variations, even 

 within short periods of time ; for 

 example, the number of lympho- 

 cytes is increased when digestion 

 is going on. The normal num- 



i < i i -i i . r FIG. 3. CURVE SHOWING THE 



ber of blood-plates varies from Nu ^ BER OF RED CORPUSCLES 



a quarter to half a million to AT DIFFERENT AGES (AFTER 



the cubic millimetre, but may SORENSEN'S ESTIMATIONS). 



be greater in disease and at high The fi^ 68 alon g the horizontal 



1 | /rr axis are years of age, those along 



levels (Kemp). the vertical axis m mions of cor- 



Life-history of the Corpuscles, puscles per cubic millimetre of blood. 



The corpuscles of the blood, 



like the body itself, fulfil the allotted round of life, and then die. 

 They arise, perform their functions for a time, and disappear. 

 But although the place and mode of their origin, the seat of their 

 destruction or decay, and the average length of their life, have 

 been the subject of active research and still more active discus- 

 sion for many years, much yet remains unsettled. 



* In 1 1 3 apparently healthy students (male) the average number of red 

 corpuscles was 5,190,000 per cubic millimetre. In 104 of these, the number 

 ranged from 4,000,000 to 6,400,000 ; in 71 (or 63 per cent, of the whole), 

 from 4,400,000 to 5,500,000 ; in 3, from 3,500,000 to 3,900,000 ; in 5, from 

 6,500,000 to 7,000,000. In one observation the number reached 7,300,000. 

 In the new-born child the average is over 6,000,000. In one case of per- 

 nicious anaemia, only 143,000 corpuscles per cubic millimetre were present, 

 the lowest number recorded. Over 13,000,000 have been counted in a 

 case of cyanosis (imperfect oxygenation of the blood, with blueness of 

 the lips, etc.) due to congenital disease of the heart. 



2 2 



