Carbonic-oxide-Jmmoglobin, &c, in the Magnetic Field. 511 



powerfully magnetic, naturally led me to speculate on the possible 

 cause of these differences. It appeared to me that if haemoglobin were 

 found to be an electrolyte, apart from the interest which would attach 

 to the discovery of the fact, a study of the products of its electrolysis 

 might throw great light upon the question. Do we not know, for 

 instance, that those compounds in which iron and other magnetic 

 metals are present in electro-negative radicals are diamagnetic 1* 



In spite of my having made great efforts to purify as completely as 

 possible the substances with which I worked, it is questionable whether 

 their purity was sufficient for electrolytic researches. The experi- 

 ments which I have yet made on this division of my subject must 

 therefore be looked upon as strictly preliminary, and I hope in the 

 course of the coming winter to extend them greatly, making use of 

 compounds of haemoglobin which have been subjected to far more 

 frequent recrystallisation. In the course of these experiments, beside 

 studying the proximate products of electrolysis with currents of dif- 

 ferent strength and potential, I intend to determine by the methods 

 of Kohlrausch and Ostwalcl, with as great accuracy as possible, the 

 specific conductivities of solutions of Oxy- and CO-haemoglobin. 



The following are the results of my electrolytic experiments which 

 I wish at present to place on record : — 



Firstly. When solutions of pure oxy-haemogiobin are subjected to elec- 

 trolysis at a temperature of about 15° C. between platinum electrodes, 

 from twelve to sixteen cells of a carbon zinc bichromate battery being 

 employed, and the current passing through the liquid being from 3 to 

 5 milliamperes, a rapid subsidence of the colouring matter takes place, 

 the upper layers of the solution becoming perfectly colourless. The 

 depositing colouring matter retains the spectroscopic character of oxy- 

 hemoglobin, and when stirred with it is absolutely and almost 

 instantaneously soluble in the liquid from which it has separated. 

 Exactly the same result occurs in the case of carbonic-oxide-haemo- 

 globin. 



Secondly. On continuing the passage of the current through the 

 solution in which precipitation has occurred, secondary reactions 

 occur, gas is developed both at the anode and cathode, and in many 

 cases a dirty white-brown deposit forms at the cathode. 



Thirdly. Under conditions of strength of current and potential 

 which were not determined with sufficient accuracy, and which I have 

 not yet been able to reproduce at will, the solutions of oxy-haemo- 

 globin and CO-haemoglobin have, under the long continued action of 

 the current, on several occasions deposited at the anode an insoluble 



* W. Allen Miller, ' The Elements of Chemistry ' : Part I, " Chemical Physics," 

 p. 422, London, 1855 ; H. du Bois, ' Proprietes magnetiques de la matiere pon- 

 derable. Eapports presented an Congres International de Physique reunis a Pans 

 en 1900,' Paris, 1901, Tome II, p. 460. 



VOL. LXVIII. 2 



