1919.] The Sixth Indian Science Congress. Ixxxiii 
with those of normal blood the percentage of fluid lost from 
the blood could be estimated. For example in a severe case 
only 18 out of the original 55 per cent of serum remained, 
showing a loss of no less than 67 per cent of the fluid portion 
of the blood as a result of the copious evacuations. A series of 
such observations showed that in mild cases of cholera not 
showing any serious collapse an average of 35 per cent of the 
serum was lost; in collapse cases recovering after the hyper- 
tonic saline injections the loss averaged 52 per cent, while in 
extremely severe cases, who were lost in spite of the new treat- 
cholera in which the blood was so thick that on opening a vein 
a drop of black blood slowly exuded having the consistency 
almost of tar: a condition which must rapidly terminate fatal- 
ly if not quickly relieved. By repeating these estimations im- 
mediately after several pints of saline had been run rapidly into 
a vein in collapsed cholera cases, I was able to ascertain the 
quantities required to restore the normal fluidity of the blood, 
and found them, as I had suspected, to be much greater in 
severe cases than had formerly been given when isotonic solutions 
were in use. The haemocrite, however, is too much of a labora- 
tory instrument to be generally available so a simple bedside 
method was needed. I therefore made use of Lloyd-Jones’ 
method of estimating the specific gravity of the blood by means 
of a series of solutions of glycerine in water in small labelled 
as six pints may often be injected with great advantage to the 
repeated as a guide to further treatment, and in several ex- 
tremely severe cholera cases over thirty pints of fluid have 
thus been injected in the course of several days with ulti- 
mate success in saving the lives of the patients. This test has 
deeply indebted for giving me charge of these wards to facili- 
te my researches on cholera and dysenteries. 
