The Reaction between Oxygen and Hemoglobin. 75 



in which a represents the concentration of hemoglobin in solution, 

 b the oxygen concentration, c the concentration of oxyhemoglobin, 

 and k a constant. 



The second view is that of Bohr. Bohr assumed that hemo- 

 globin in aqueous solution is hydrolytically split into globin + Fe- 

 component, and that the Fe-component combines reversibly with 

 oxygen. Bohr's formulation of this hypothesis leads to an equa- 

 tion of the fourth degree. Without going into details it will 

 suffice to call attention to the main points of Bohr's work as 

 far as we are concerned here. They are, in addition to the 

 assumed hydrolysis of hemoglobin in aqueous solution, first, the 

 inapplicability of formula (1) to his results and secondly, the 



. . f . oxygen absorbed 



variation of the ratio , , , . 7—r~. 7 — T- — with the 



total hemoglobin concentration 



total hemoglobin concentration 1 at constant pressure. 



The third view is that of Wo. Ostwald who applied the older 



adsorption formula, 



x = kc n , (2) 



in which x = oxygen adsorbed, c = oxygen concentration, k and 

 n are constants, to some of the data of Paul Bert and Loewy and 

 found that log x and log c plotted in rectangular coordinates gave 

 a straight line. 



The fourth and last view is that brought forward by Manchot, 

 who found that the quantity of oxygen or CO absorbed by 100 

 c.c. blood, laked or unlaked, varied with the dilution, i. e., with 

 the total hemoglobin concentration. On 10-fold dilution this 

 quantity approached a maximum value of 2 mol. oxygen to I mol. 

 hemoglobin. 



The experiments which I have to report were carried out during 

 the last 4 years in the course of other studies. These experiments 

 are restricted to the influence of change in the total hemoglobin 

 concentration on the amount of gas bound pro gram hemoblogin 

 at constant gas pressure. The results also hold only for hemo- 

 globin in solution, i. e., aqueous solutions of crystalline oxyhemo- 

 globin or centrifuged red corpuscles dissolved in H2O. It is to 

 be emphasized that the few experiments cited here have been 



1 By total hemoglobin concentration is meant here and in the following the total 

 weight of blood coloring matter (hemoglobin + oxyhemoglobin) in unit volume. 



