DE. A. GAMGrEE ON THE ACTION OF NITEITES ON BLOOD. 
619 
The great bulk of the gas had been collected within fourteen minutes from the com- 
mencement of the exhaustion. 
Volumes of gas obtained 83-44 
After absorption of C0 2 22 -2 
After absorption of O 6 -67 vols. 
Composition of gas in 100 parts. 
Oxygen 18-61 
Carbonic acid . . . . 73-39 
Nitrogen 8*00 
100-00 
83"44 vols. of total gases =9-29 cub. centims at 0°C. and 0 m- 76. 
15-53 „ oxygen . =1*73 „ „ 
61-24 „ carbonic acid =6 -82 „ „ 
6-67 „ nitrogen . =0-743 „ „ 
100 volumes of blood treated with nitrite of amyl yielded — 
At 0° C. and 0 m- 760 pressure. 
At 0° O. and 1 metre pressure. 
Total gases 
34-02 vols. 
25-85 vols. 
Oxygen 
6-33 „ 
4*81 „ 
Carbonic acid 
24-90 „ 
18-92 „ 
Nitrogen 
2-79 „ 
2-12 „ 
Having described the experiments in which the gases of normal blood and of blood 
treated with nitrites were extracted by ebullition in vacuo, I shall point out the facts 
which were either confirmed or made out in these experiments. 
Three of the analyses illustrate the composition and quantity of the gases obtained 
from healthy blood ; from these it will be seen that venous blood taken directly from 
the right side of the heart yielded 9*19 cub. centims. (at 0°C. and 1 metre pressure) of 
oxygen for every 100 cub. centims., that the amount obtained from two samples of arte- 
rialized blood was 18-14 and 15-64 cub. centims. (at 0° C. and 1 metre) for every 100 
cub. centims. of blood. The addition of nitrites to well-arterialized blood was shown to 
lead to an enormous diminution in the amount of oxygen which could be removed bv 
the pump ; the amount of oxygen obtained being lowest in the case where the nitrite 
had been in contact with blood during the longest time, and highest when the nitrite 
was added to the blood only a short time before its exhaustion. A sample of blood 
which yielded 18-148 vols. of oxygen per 100 vols. of blood, after the addition of nitrite 
of potassium, gave up only 0-425 cub. centim. of oxygen. 
In another case, where the amount and composition of the gases were determined in 
normal blood, and in the same blood after the addition of nitrite of amyl, it was found 
that 100 cub. centims. of the pure blood yielded 15-64 cub. centims. of O (at 0°C. and 
