44 
amount  of  quinine  eliminated  as  such  in  the  urine  during  the  first 
twenty-four  hours  after  administration  is  usually  1 5  per  cent,  to  26  per 
cent,  of  the  amount  administered.  In  the  body  only  traces  of  quinine 
can  be  recognised.  Gierasa  and  Schaumann*  found  quinine  in  the 
blood  m  only  one  out  of  three  cases  after  its  administration,  and  in 
this  the  quinine,  which  was  present  in  amount  too  small  for  estimation, 
was  found  in  the  plasma  only,  not  in  the  red  cells.  It  would  therefore 
appear  that  the  amount  of  quinine  reaching  the  blood  stream  and  able 
to  act  directly  upon  the  red  cells  is  extremely  small. 
(6)  The  action  of  quinine  on  red  cells  during  blackzvater  fever. 
In  the  preceding  subsection  the  action  of  quinine  upon  healthy 
red  blood  cells  has  been  studied  in  considerable  detail,  so  that  the 
behaviour  towards  quinine  of  red  blood  cells  during  blackwater  fever 
may  be  the  more  readily  compared  with  their  behaviour  in  respect  of 
this  alkaloid  during  health. f 
Method.  The  method  of  testing  employed  has  been  that  used  in 
Table  i,  and  involves  the  withdrawal  of  about  ten  drops  (o' 5  c.cm.) 
of  blood  from  the  finger,  the  procedure  adopted  being  as  follows; 
The  blood  coming  from  the  finger  was  allowed  to  fall  drop  by  drop 
into  a  small  collecting  capsule  of  glass,  containing  a  measured  amount 
of  a  I  per  cent,  solution  of  potassium  oxalate.  As  soon  as  enough 
blood  had  been  collected  the  volume  of  the  mixture  was  measured. 
The  object  of  these  two  measurements  was  to  ascertain  the  percentage 
by  volume  of  red  cells,  and  also  the  haemoglobinometer  reading  of 
the  undiluted  blood.  If,  however,  it  is  not  desired  to  obtain  these 
data,  then  the  two  measurements  in  question  may  be  omitted.  The 
next  step  was  to  make  a  haemocrit  determination  of  the  percentage 
by  volume  of  red  cells  in  the  oxalated  blood.  As  soon  as  this  had 
been  done  a  measured  amount  of  the  oxalated  blood  was  taken  up 
in  a  pipette  and  transferred  to  a  centrifugal  tube  containing  about 
10  c.cm.  of  a  o'9  per  cent,  solution  of  sodium  chloride.  After 
*  Loc.  Clt.  p.  J2. 
1  A.  Murri,  Sull'  intossicasione  da  chinino,  II  PoJicHnico,  1895,  Sezione  Medica 
Vor  2,  p.  340,  tested  the  action  of  quinine  in  varying  dilutions  on  the  red  blood  cells  of  a 
patient  suffering  fiom  haemoglobinuric  fever  following  quinine,  and  on  healthy  red  blood 
cell.s  during  similar  conditions,  but  no  difference  was  observable  in  the  two  cases  No 
details  are  given  (p.  349). 
I 
