6 cei 



*s4 i 



164 THE FLUIDS. r 



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per cent, of the contents of the blood-corpuscles of an adult man. 

 The iron in the ash of the corpuscles belongs to the haematine 

 alone, and varies with it constituting 6.64 per cent, of the hsema- 

 tine, and 4.348 per cent, of the dry corpuscles. (Schmidt}) But a 

 considerable part of the fats of the blood is also contained in the 

 red corpuscles their quantity amounting to .2 or .3 per cent, of the 

 moist cells. It appears that more fat is found in the cells of venous 

 than of arterial blood. The so-called extractive matters also exist 

 in the blood-corpuscles; of which, however, neither the amount 

 nor their precise composition is known. Of the mineral constitu- 

 ents of the blood- corpuscles, the phosphates and the combinations 

 of potassa are in great excess over the chlorine and the sodium 

 combinations. The common salt is confined almost entirely to the ^ 

 serum of the blood, as already shown. The cells of arterial blood 

 always contain more salts than those of venous blood ; but those 

 of the hepatic vein are especially rich in them. Finally, the gases 

 of the blood are especially contained in the corpuscles. These are 

 carbonic acid gas, oxygen, and nitrogen. Whipped blood absorbs i 

 1J times its volume of carbonic acid gas, and only 15 per cent, of 

 its volume of oxgen. Nitrogen is not more largely absorbed by 

 blood than by water, and about equal quantities are found in arte- \ 

 rial and venous blood. 2 There is only more oxygen relatively to ^ 

 carbonic acid in arterial than venous blood ; the proportions being 

 \v. the former as 6 to 16, and in the latter as 4 to 16. That these 

 gases exist in great part in the blood, and especially in the cor- 

 puscles, in a chemical combination, though a loose one, is no longer J 

 doubtful (Lehmann)] there being from 11 to 14 times the amount 

 that could be taken up by mere mechanical absorption. The ha3- 

 mato-globuline manifests a remarkable affinity for them. There are 

 other gases, however, as carbonic oxide and several carbo-hydro- 

 gens, which combine with the corpuscles so energetically as to 

 blacken or even to destroy them. It has already been stated that 

 the gases in the blood are in & fluid state (pp. 43, 44). 



1 The metallic iron constitutes 1 part to 230 of dry corpuscles, 1 to 229 in 

 women, 1 to 248 in pneumonitis, 1 to 269 in chlorosis, and 1 to 249 in pregnancy ; 

 in the first stage of typhus, 1 to 220. The blood-cells in the hepatic veins con- 

 tain hut two-thirds as much iron as those in the vena portse. In hydrsemia the 

 cells contain an excess of peroxide of iron ; the globuline being diminished, and 

 thus the hsematine relatively increased. (Schmidt.) Berzelius found less iron than 

 Schmidt in the dry corpuscles. (See p. 102.) 



2 Robin and Verdeil say 1 times as much in arterial as in venous blood. 



