486 



CHAMBERLAIN. 



Table V. — Range of hcemoglobin readings for 702 healthy American soldiers who 

 • , at date of examination had served on the average twenty months in the> 

 Philippines. 



Range of hsemoglobln. 



Number 

 of men. 



8 



64 



185 



Per cent 

 of total 

 number. 



1.1 



9.2 



26.4 



Range of heemoglobin. 



Number 

 of men. 



Per cent 

 of total 

 number. 



Under 80 per cent 



90 to 94 per cent 



95 to 99 per cent 



261 



136 



48 



37.2 



19.4 



6.7 



80 to 84 per cent 



85 to 89 per cent . _ 



100 per cent or over 





It will be noted in the erythi'ocyte counts that there was a -consider- 

 able excursion below and a still greater excursion above the 5,000,000 

 mark. The men with cell counts between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000 per 

 cubic millimeter constituted 50.4 per cent of the total 687, while those 

 with counts above 6,000,000 formed 13.1 per cent. The table of haemo- 

 globin estimations shows that 89.7 per cent of the men gave readings of 

 85 per cent or upward. 



The normal erythrocyte count of young adult males at sea-level in temperate 

 climates may vary considerably from the conventional 5,000,000 per cubic mil- 

 limeter. Cabot states that 6,000,000 is by no means rare among healthy young 

 men and that higher figures are seen occasionally. Among 50 young medical 

 students in. the United States Hewes(7) found an average of 5,809,000^ the lowest 

 being 5,120,000. Sorensen (H) found an average of 5,606,000 for male students 

 ranging from 19.5 to 22 years of age and of 5,340,000 for young physicians from 

 25 to 30 years old. Ewing, (8) speaking of Welcker's estimate of the normal red 

 Cell count as 5,000,000 for men and 4,500,000 for women, says: 



"Perhaps the chief contribution of later observer.s using Thoma's instrument 

 has been the proof that the numbers are more apt to exceed rather than, fall below 

 these averages, especially in men, a fact that has become more certain from the 

 more careful estimates of the last decade. Thus the average obtained by 

 Helling was 5,910,000; by Frederickson, 5,072,000; Zaslein, 5,010,000; Neubert, 

 5,603,000; Graber, 5,081,000; Stierlin, 5,752,000; Reinicke, 5,209,667; Andriezen, 

 6,000,000 ; Hayem 5,500,000." 



In view of the above averages it will be seen that the erythrocyte 

 counts obtained by Wickline and by ourselves among healthy young 

 soldiers in the Philippines could not be considered as differing from the 

 normal as seen in Europe and America. 



For 70 healthy American soldiers stationed in New Orleans, and in 

 whom uncinariasis had been ruled out by repeated examinations of the 

 stools, we found an average of 94.2 per cent of hgemoglobin. (12) The 

 von Fleischl instrument was used and, the average age of the men was 

 about 28 years. Our own experience elsewhere in the United States has 

 been that readings with this instrument rarely reach 100 per cent. 



Faught(lO) considers 90 or 95 per cent with the von Fleischl apparatus to be 

 normal. The relative percentage of haemoglobin as estimated by clinical hsemoglo- 



