884 Hemoglobinemia. 



6. Hemoglobinemia. Haemoglobinaemia. 



Hemoglobinemia represents aii affection of the blood in 

 which, the blood plasma contains dissolved blood-coloring matter. 



The paralytic hemoglobinemia, which etiologieally as well as from 

 a symptomatological standpoint represents a special form of disease, 

 will be treated in a later chapter. 



Etiology. The simple hemoglobinemia of domestic animals 

 is principally caused by blood parasites, especially by piro- 

 plasma (see p. 762), more rarely by trypanosomes (see p. 801). 

 Besides these, although much more rarely, certain chemical sub- 

 stances or toxins may be responsible for a dissolution of the 

 red blood corpuscles. Of the known chemical substances, 

 chlorate of potassium, phenacetin, creolin, naphthol, naph- 

 thalin, antifebrin, and various acids (by insect bites formic 

 acid enters into the body [Albrecht] ) may exceptionally pro- 

 duce hemoglobinemia if they are administered in large quan- 

 tities. ( Siedamgrotzky observed the disease in a horse which 

 was given a handful of naphthalin.) The disease sometitnes 

 develops also in the course of acute infectious diseases (in- 

 fluenza of horses, distemper of dogs), under the influence of 

 specific infectious substances, or more often as the result of 

 secondary infections (with streptococci). Szilagyi observed 

 numerous cases of hemoglobinemia in horses, with intestinal 

 hemorrhage, after the ingestion of very moldy clover. Hemo- 

 globinemia sometimes appears also in connection with a non- 

 specific septicemia, extensive burning of the skin (Frohner, 

 Plosz). Whether the action of cold or the cooling of the body 

 is capable of producing hemoglobineniia in domestic animals 

 remains at present undecided. Although Saur, also Leech ob- 

 served the affection in dogs, and Utz in a hog, occurring after 

 the action of cold, another origin of the disease cannot be 

 positively excluded in these eases. If solution of the blood 

 corpuscles resulted from the action of the cold itself, hemo- 

 globinemia would appear much more frequently after colds. 

 In the paroxysmal hemoglobinemia of man hemolytic substances 

 were found in the blood serum of the patients, which, when 

 cold are anchored to the blood corpuscles in the fashion of an 

 amboceptor, and when warm are supposed to produce solution 

 of the blood corpuscles with the aid of the complement (Moro & 

 Noda). 



Szoyka observed hemoglobinemia in two dogs, and Marek in three 

 horses, and in enzootic extension in sheep also without being able to 

 prove a hematozoal origin of the affections, either by examination of 

 the blood or through injections or transfusions of the blood into animals 

 of the same species. 



