COMPOSITION OF ANIMAL BODIES. 21 



identical in composition, also some fatty matter and a trace 

 of sugar. The ash of blood is almost one per cent., and is 

 rich in chloride of sodium, or common salt, and contains 

 a large proportion of the phosphates of soda, lime and 

 magnesia. 



To the eye the blood appears to be a homogeneous red 

 liquid, but on microscopic examination is found to consist 

 of a colorless fluid called liquor sanguinis, or plasma of 

 the blood holding in suspension very great numbers of 

 globular bodies the colored and colorless corpuscles of the 

 blood. The colored greatly outnumber the colorless cor- 

 puscles ; and the former consist largely of coloring matter 

 haemoglobin which gives blood its red color. The 

 shade of color depends upon the amount of oxygen. Ar- 

 terial blood contains oxyhaemoglobin, which is a bright red, 

 crystaline body, having a similar composition to albumin- 

 oids, but with the addition of about 0.45 per cent, of iron, 

 from which the color is supposed to be derived. "We here 

 give a tabular view, exhibiting the relative composition of 

 .the blood corpuscles and the liquor sanguinis, as deter- 

 mined by Schmidt and Lehman : 



1,000 Parts of Blood Corpuscles 1,000 Parts of Liquor Sanguinis 

 Contain : Contain : 



Water 688.00 Water 902.90 



Solid constituents 312.00 Solid constituents 97. 10 



Specific gravity 1088.5 Specific gravity 1028 



Fibrin 4.05 



Haemoglobin and proteids of Proteids, chiefly serum-albu- 



the stroma 298.97 min 78.84 



Fat 2.31 Fat 1.72 



Extractive matters 2 . 60 Extractive matters 8 . 94 



Mineral substances 8.12 Mineral substances 8.55 



Chlorine 1.686 Chlorine 3.644 



Sulphur trioxide 0.066 Sulphur trioxide 0.155 



Phosphorus pentoxide 1 . 134 Phosphorw pentoxide 0.191 



Potassium 3.328 Potassium 0.323 



Sodium 1.052 Sodium 3.341 



Oxygen 0.667 Oxygen 0.403 



Calcium phosphate 0.114 Calcium phosphate 311 



Magnesium phosphate . 073 Magnesium phosphate . 322 



