THE RED BLOOD CORPUSCLES AND THE H/EMOGLOBIN 



OF HEALTHY ADULT AMERICAN MALES RESIDING 



IN THE PHILIPPINES. 



BASED ON 1,418 BED CELL COUNTS AND 1,433 HEMOGLOBIN ESTIMATIONS 

 PEEFOEMED ON 702 SOLDIEES.^ 



By Weston P. Chambeelain.^ 

 {From the VnitecL States Army Board for the Study of Tropical Diseases.) 



The expression "tropical ansemia" in one that often occurred in the 

 older treatises on diseases of hot countries, but more recent investiga- 

 tions have shown that most of the conditions formerly so designated are 

 in reality instances of secondary anaemia due, to infections with various 

 parasites, notably plasmodia and uncinaria. 



Scheube says "there is no anaemia caused by the tropical climate alone." (i) 

 The investigations of Marestang, van der Scheer, Eijkman, Glongner and F. 

 Plehn(l) on white men living in the Tropics showed no material deviations from 

 the normal condition as observed in Europe. Castellani and Chalmers (2) state 

 that a certain number of Europeans in the Tropics take on "a peculiar whitish 

 color, even in cases in which the blood examination does not reveal any sensible 

 decrease in the amount of hsemoglobin." Eijkman (l) also refers to this pheno- 

 menon. Lehmann and van der Scheer ( 1 ) and Musgrave and Sison ( 3 ) consider 

 this pallor of the skin to be a local vaso-motor condition. 



In 1908 Wickline(4) reported the result of examinations of the blood of 

 American soldiers in the Philippines. The men arrived in the Archipelago in 

 June, 1905, and the first observations were made in September of the same year. 

 His results, which are given in Table I, showed that there was a progressive fall in 

 the percentage of hsemoglobin and a regular rise in the number of erythrocytes 

 except at the last observation period. The color index progressively decreased. 



Table I. Wickline's average estimations of the erythrocytes and hwmoglobin of 

 Arriierioan officers and soldiers who arrived in the Philippines in June. 1905. 



Number 



of men 



examined. 



I Average 



Datesofex-i^^Xomes 

 amination. : "p^^?S 

 millimeter. 



Average 

 hemoglo- 

 bin. 



Average 

 color 

 index. 



70, 

 104 

 97 

 81 



. Sept., 1905 ' 4,980,555 

 Dec, 1905 5,343,595 

 Aug., 1906 5,429,960 

 Apr., 1907 5,330,888 



Per cent. 

 94 

 89 

 86 

 83 



0.94 



0.83 

 0.79 

 0.78 



^ Published with permission of the Chief Surgeon, Philippines Division. 



" Weston P. Chamberlain, major. Medical Corps, United States Army, president 

 of the United States Army Board for the Study of Tropical Diseases as they 

 Exist in the Philippine Islands. 



483 



