PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL AGENTS UPON BLOOD. 
705 
No. 35. — In 100 parts of air. 
Oxygen . . . 10-42j Total oxygen 16 . 47 
Carbonic acid . . 5-05 J 
Nitrogen . . . 84"53 
Defibrinated ox-blood with 6 drops (20 per cent, strength) of hydrocyanic acid. 100 
per cent, of air. Twenty-four hours’ action. Result : — 
No. 36. — In 100 parts of air. 
Oxygen . . . 16-321 Total 18 . 23 
Carbonic acid . 1*91 J 
Nitrogen . . . 81-77 
It is thus seen that the effect of hydrocyanic acid is to retard those transformations 
and decompositions upon which the interchange of the respiratory gases depend. The 
effect is well marked in this case, but it is even more so in a case of poisoning in the 
human subject, which I shall immediately refer to ; meanwhile the results of these two 
analyses are — 
Oxygen. 
Carbonic acid. 
Nitrogen. 
Total oxygen. 
In 100 per cent, of air from pure ox-blood 
10-42 
5-05 
84-53 
15-47 
Ditto plus hydrocyanic acid 
16-32 
1-91 
81-77 
18-23 
Action of Hydrocyanic Acid on Human Blood. 
A quantity of blood was removed from the heart and great vessels of a healthy well- 
developed young woman, aged 19 years, who died within half an hour after swallowing 
a couple of drachms of bitter almond oil. The blood was still fluid forty-eight hours 
after death, and yielded a small quantity of hydrocyanic acid by distillation. A portion 
of the blood, after being thoroughly arterialized by agitation with renewed portions of 
air, was put into a receiver with 100 per cent, of atmospheric air, and kept twenty-four 
hours (with occasional agitation) in a room of an average temperature of 15° C. At 
the end of the twenty-four hours the air confined with the blood was analyzed, with the 
subjoined result : — 
No. 37. — In 100 parts of air. 
Oxygen 19-56 
Carbonic acid .... O'OO 
Nitrogen 80-44 
It is here seen that the effect of hydrocyanic acid is the same in the body as out 
of it, namely, to arrest respiratory changes. 
5 e 2 
