THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 

NO  V EMBER,  rgoj. 
  i 
A  NEW  METHOD  FOR  THE  DETERMINATION  OF  THE 
ALKALINITY  OF  THE  BLOOD. 
By  Arthur  Dare,  M.D. 
Numerous  methods  for  determining  the  alkalinity  of  the  blood 
have  been  proposed,  but  they  have  required  relatively  large  quanti- 
ties of  blood  and  have  not  proven  trustworthy  on  use. 
The  alkali  of  the  blood  exists  partly  as  alkaline  salts  (carbonate 
and  phosphate)  and  partly  in  combination  with  proteid  or  hemo- 
globin. 
The  first  class  are  known  as  readily  diffusible  alkalies,  and  the 
second  as,  practically,  non-diffusible  alkalies.  The  larger  amount 
of  alkali  is  present  in  the  latter  condition,  the  relative  percentages 
of  the  two  classes,  however,  vary,  being  modified  by  the  influence 
of  even  very  small  quantities  of  acids,  and  of  carbon  dioxide,  and 
also  by  the  influence  of  the  respiratory  exchange  of  gases  in  the 
blood. 
As  Hammarsten  in  his  Physiological  Chemistry  (,1900,  p.  159) 
points  out:  "The  blood  corpuscles  give  up  a  part  of  the  alkali 
united  with  proteid  to  the  serum  by  the  action  of  carbon  dioxide, 
hence  the  serum  becomes  more  alkaline.  The  equilibrium  of  the 
osmotic  tension  in  the  blood  corpuscles,  and  in  the  serum,  is  thereby 
destroyed ;  the  blood  corpuscles  swell  up  because  they  take  up 
water  from  the  serum,  and  this  then  becomes  more  concentrated 
and  richer  in  alkali,  proteid,  and  sugar.  Under  the  influence  of 
oxygen,  the  corpuscles  take  up  their  original  form  again,  and  the 
above  changes  are  restored." 
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