170 



Scientific Proceedings (120). 



blood gave figures much lower than Bloor's. This shows that the 

 phosphate ion in its relation to cells and plasma behaves differently 

 from all the other ions studied in this respect. The chloride, for 

 instance, is never present in cells and plasma in the same concen- 

 tration. This exceptional role of the phosphate ion is, however, 

 not so surprising when we consider the organic acid soluble 

 phosphate, in a sense the counterpart of the chloride combined 

 with protein. 



table 1. 



Distribution of Inorganic Phosphate between Whole Blood and Plasma. 



Adults. 



Children. 



Subject. 



Whole Blood. 



Plasma. 



Subject. 



Whole Blood. 



Plasma. 



P.G. 1 



3-5 



3-4 



R.M. 1 



3-0 



3 01 



P.G. 2 



G.M. 1 



G.M. 2 



J-G 



352 

 4.0 



3-52 

 3.78 

 3-94 

 2.8 



R.M. 2 



M.E 



3-02 



4.0 



4.61 



4.17 



4.10 



3- 75 

 3.16 

 4.17 



4- 25 



2.78 

 4.01 

 4-63 

 4.26 

 4.08 



3- 49 

 3.18 

 4.12 



4- 35 



3.98 

 31 



H.R 



D.B 



E.G 



3.38 

 3-51 



336 

 350 



R.M 



T.Z 



F.B 





M.L 









A.A 









A.S 











A conclusion of practical import is that when inorganic phos- 

 phate is to be determined in blood, it is immaterial whether it is 

 done on whole blood or plasma, providing it is done immediately 

 by the method of Bell and Doisy. 



If the colorimetric reading is made within half an hour after 

 the blood is drawn, whole blood is no higher than plasma, but if 

 an hour elapses the whole blood is higher by about o.5"mg. ; after 

 several hours the difference is a milligram or more. 



It seems reasonable enough to assume that if at the time the 

 blood is drawn the phosphate ion is always present in equal 

 concentration inside and outside of the cell, it is freely diffusible 

 into and out of the cell when the blood circulates. Iverson 1 

 has shown that phosphate in organic acid soluble form can accumu- 

 late in. the corpuscle at a good rate if inorganic phosphate is 

 injected or added to blood. We would, therefore, expect that the 

 phosphate formed by hydrolysis would diffuse out of the cells into 



Iverson, Biochetn. Zeit., 192 1, cxiv, 297. 



