THE BLOOD-CORPUSCLES 



a healthy woman, but a variation of 1,000,000 up or down can 

 hardly be considered abnormal. In persons suffering from profound 

 anaemia the number may sink to 1,000,000 per cubic millimetre, 

 or even less. In one case of pernicious ansemia, only 143,000 



corpuscles per cubic millimetre were 

 present, the lowest number recorded. 

 In new-born children the average is 

 over 6,000,000, and in the inhabi- 

 tants of high plateaus or mountains 

 it may rise to 7,000,000, or even more. 

 Fig. 3. Curve showing the Number In the latter instance a residence of a 

 of Red Corpuscles at Different Ages fortnight in the rarefied air is sum- 

 Sffig^Tng cient to bring about the increase, and 



axis are years of age, those along a subsequent residence of a fortnight 



the vertical axis millions of cor- j n the lowlands to annul it.* Over 



bS 8 Pef UbiC mmimetre f 13,000,000 erythrocytes to the cubic 



millimetre 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. 



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. The 

 total leucocyte count, and still more 

 the so-called differential count, i.e., 

 the determination of the relative 

 number of the different kinds of 

 leucocytes, is often resorted to in 

 the study of pathological condi- 

 tions. A distinct increase in the 

 number is designated leucocytosis. 

 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 



* In 113 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. 



m 



Fig. 4. Curve showing Proportion 

 of White Corpuscles to Red at 

 Different Times of the Day (after 

 the Results of Hirt). At I the 

 morning meal was taken; at II 

 the midday meal; at III theevcn- 

 ingmeal. During active digestion 

 the number of lymphocytes in the 

 blood is greatly increased, both 

 absolutely and relatively to the 

 number of the other leucocytes. 



