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XXIV. Researches on the Blood. — On the Action of Nitrites on Blood. By Arthur 
Gamgee, M.B., F.B.S.E . , Assistant to the Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in 
the University of Edinburgh. Communicated by Professor Frankland, F.R.S. 
Received April 1, — Read May 7, 1868. 
Introductory Propositions 1 . 
In the following propositions the leading facts which have been ascertained by previous 
observers with regard to the colouring-matter of the blood and its relation to gases have 
been condensed. 
1. The colouring-matter of blood, to which the names of Cruorine 2 or Haemoglobin 3 
have been given, occurs in solution in the blood-corpuscles, but may by suitable treatment 
be obtained from them in the form of crystals, which when seen individually are of a 
yellow, and when seen collectively are of a reddish colour. Their solution possesses 
the property of absorbing light so as to yield a remarkable spectrum characterized by 
two very well-defined absorption-bands situated in the yellow and green portions of the 
spectrum, and by the cutting off of the greater part of the more refrangible rays 4 . 
These crystals are identical with those noticed by Leidig 5 , Reichert 6 , and Kolliker 7 , 
and afterwards more fully described by Funke 8 , Kunde 9 , and Lehmann 10 . 
2. The composition of these crystals appears to be perfectly definite. The following- 
are the results of the analyses of two independent observers, C. Schmidt 11 and Hoppe- 
Seyler 12 : — 
1 The author has thought it right to introduce these propositions in order to remove any doubts which might 
exist in the mind of the reader with regard to the identity of Cruorine or Haemoglobin with the blood-crystals 
of Funke and Lehmann, and to place in as clear a light as possible the leading facts which have been made out 
on this subject. 
2 “On the Reduction and Oxidation of the Colouring-matter of the Blood, by Professor Stokes, F.R.S.,” 
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, vol. xiii. p. 357, paragraph 8. 
3 Berzelius applied the term Haematoglobulin to the colouring-matter of blood. Hoppe-Seyler and other 
German physiologists have adopted the term Haemoglobin. 
4 Hoppe, Yirchow’s Archiv. vol. xxiii. p. 446 (1862). 
5 Zeitschrift f. wiss. Zoologie. 1849, Bd. I. p. 116. 
6 Muller’s Archiv, 1849, p. 197. 
7 Zeitschrift f. wiss. Zoologie, 1849, Bd. I. p. 261. 
8 Zeitschrift f. rat. Med. Bd. I. p. 172 (1851). 
9 Zeitschrift f. rat. Med. Bd. II. p. 271. 
10 Qualis sit Haemocrystallines natura chemica. Programm. Jena, 1856 (quoted by Hoppe). Lehmann’s 
‘ Physiological Chemistry,’ translated by Dr. Day, Cavendish Society, vol. iii. pp. 485—495 (1854). 
11 Ueber Blutkrystalle. Dorpat, 1862, p. 33. 
12 Medicinisch-chemische Untersuchungen, zweites Heft, p. 187. 
