1910.] Blood in Vertehrates and Invertebrates. G13. 



B. Ill Elasmobranchs, Teleosts, Mammals. 





Na. 



K. 



Cil. 



Mg. 



CI. 





100 



4-61 



2-71 



2-46 



165 -7 





100 



9-506 



3 -93 



1 -41 



149-7 





100 



4-33 



3 -10 



1 -46 



137 -8 



Dog* 



100 



6-86 



2-52 



0-81 



128 -5 





100 



6-69 



2 -58 



0-80 



118 -3 





100 



9-22 



3-37 



1-76 



101 -4 



* Calculated from Abderhalden's results, ' Zeit. fiir Physiol. Cliem.,' 1898, vol. 25, p. 106. 



t Calculated from the results of Bunge's analyses, ' Lehrbuch der Physiologischen und 

 Pathologischen Chemie,' 1889, p. 221. The values for the K, Ca, and Mg appear high as 

 compared with those obtained by me in analyses of the blood serum of man (unpublished). 



V. — General Ohscrvatioiis. 



It will be noted on inspection of the results of the analyses that consider- 

 able differences exist between the blood of the Invertebrates, Zimulus and 

 Homar^is, on the one hand, and the marine Elasmobrauch and Teleost forms 

 on the other. 



In Linmlus the amount of the total salts of the blood, 2-982 per cent., 

 approaches that of the sea water, not indeed of the highest concentration, 

 but of that which may be found at points along the Atlantic coast. At 

 St. Andrews, New Brunswick, the total salts of the sea water collected in 

 April were 2-417 per cent., but in sea water obtained in August 3-165 per 

 cent.* 



In the blood of the lobster the total salts as ascertained were 2-852 per- 

 cent., which is between the two concentrations given above for the salinity 

 of the sea water at St. Andrews, where the lobsters from which the blood wa.s 

 taken were obtained. 



It is, however, when the ratios of the inorganic constituents based on the- 

 value iSTa = 100, as given above, are examined that one sees the close 

 parallelism between the blood of Zimulus and sea water. Only in the^ 

 K and SO3 are there important differences. The parallelism in ratios is all 

 but complete between the blood of Zdmulus and the fluid in the disc of the 

 Medusa, Aurelia Jlavidula. The Medusfe have probably always been marine 

 forms, and Limulus and its ancestral prototypes have been oceanic as far 

 back in geological history as the Cambrian. The parallelism in ratios not 

 only between these forms but also between them and sea water, though 

 striking, is not surprising. The blood of Limuhis is but slightly modified 

 sea water. 



X Macallum, " On the Inorganic Composition of the Medusce, Aurelia Jlavidula and 

 Cyanea Arctica," ' Journ. of Physiol.,' 190.3, vol. 29, p. 213. 



2 Z 2 



