702 
PROFESSOR HARLEY ON THE INFLUENCE OF 
Examination of the Blood. 
Under the microscope, the red corpuscles were in general normal in appearance. 
There were, however, a number of three-cornered ones to be seen, like what is some- 
times met with in the half-putrid blood of fish. There was also an excess of white 
corpuscles, which might have been due to the animal being in full digestion. 
After the blood had stood for some hours in a glass vessel, although not coagulated, 
it had deposited the corpuscles and left a layer of serum on the top*. Shaken with 
air it arterialized readily. It contained 0*235 gramme (3-64 grains) of urea per ounce. 
No sugar could be detected in it, yet after standing a couple of days it became quite 
acid. A quantity of this blood, after being thoroughly arterialized, was put into a 
receiver with 100 per cent, of air, and in order to make the experiment as exact as 
possible, a healthy dog was sacrificed, and a similar quantity of its blood treated in 
exactly the same manner. As this experiment was performed during the season of the 
year when the days were short, and I could not work in the laboratory after four o’clock, 
I carried the receivers home with me, and repeatedly agitated them during the evening, 
and pretty far on into the night. 
After twenty-four hours’ action the analyses of the gases gave the following results - 
1st. Blood of healthy dog. Result : — 
No. 28. — In 100 parts of air. 
Oxygen . . . 19'TOOWj 20 . 109 
Carbonic acid . 0*409J 
Nitrogen . . . 79*891 
2nd. Blood of dog poisoned by puff adder. Result : — 
No. 29. — In 100 parts of air. 
Oxygen 
Carbonic acid 
Nitrogen . 
17*09 
1*09. 
•Total oxygen 18*18 
81*82 
It is here observed that there has been a marked difference in the action of the two 
bloods. The puff-adder poison seems to have accelerated the transformations and 
decompositions upon which the absorption of oxygen and the exhalation of carbonic 
acid by the blood depend. By placing the results in the form of a Table, this fact is 
rendered still more apparent. 
Oxygen. 
Carbonic acid. 
Nitrogen. 
Total oxygen. 
In 100 parts of atmospheric air 
20-960 
0-002 
79*038 
20-962 
Ditto, after being acted on by pure blood 
19*700 
0-409 
79*891 
20-109 
Ditto, after being acted on by poisoned blood.. 
17*09 
1-09 
81-82 
18-18 
* On opening the other animals some hours after death the blood was found to he fluid, hut it coagulated 
after its withdrawal from the body. It formed a jelly rather than a clot. There seemed to be a marked dimi- 
nution in the amount of fibrin, as well as a thinning of the blood, in all the cases. 
