Reactions  of  Albumin. 
\  Am.  Jour.  Fharm. 
I  November,  1903. 
you  as  pharmacists,  but  as  a  matter  of  information  you  will  doubt- 
less like  to  know  some  of  the  more  important  findings. 
In  catarrhal  jaundice,  amyloid  liver,  croupous  pneumonia,  influ- 
enza, rheumatic  fever,  rubeola,  appendicitis  and  cholemia  an  increase 
in  alkalinity  was  shown,  while  in  abscess  of  the  liver  and  spleno- 
medullary  leukemia  there  was  a  marked  decrease.  In  malaria  the 
results  were  contradictory. 
These  studies  that  I  report  to  you  are  admittedly  imperfect,  but 
they  are  sufficient,  I  think,  to  show  that  the  factor  of  blood  alkalin- 
ity in  disease  is  very  important,  and  one  whose  accurate  solution  in 
a  large  number  of  cases  is  going  to  throw  a  flood  of  light  upon  the 
present  obscure  chemical  nature  of  many  of  the  disease  processes 
of  the  human  body. 
THE  REACTIONS  OF  ALBUMIN  WITH  ACIDS  AND 
ALKALIES. 
By  Joseph  W.  England. 
Criticism  has  been  made  on  the  hemo-alkalimeter  devised  by 
Dr.  Arthur  Dare,  the  claim  being  that  the  various  indicators  and 
the  various  acids  used  in  blood  alkalimetry  all  give  different  results 
for  the  reason  that  "  the  power  of  the  blood  to  neutralize  acids  is 
dependent  upon  free  alkaline  salts  of  varying  kinds,  and  also  upon 
the  acid  combining  power  of  other  substances  in  the  blood,  chiefly 
albumins.  The  peculiar  alkaline  salts  present  will  be  entirely 
included  by  some  indicators,  but  not  to  the  same  extent  by  others. 
The  acid  combining  power  of  the  albumins  will  show  varying  values, 
depending  upon  the  nature  and  the  strength  of  the  acid  used." 
The  free  alkaline  salts  in  the  blood  are  present  as  carbonate  and 
phosphate,  and  it  is  true  that  these  are  neutralized  by  acids  in  dif- 
ferent proportions  ( I  50  parts  of  tartaric  acid,  for  example,  require 
for  neutralization  143  parts  of  sodium  phosphate,  or  168  parts  of 
sodium  acid  carbonate),  but  the  relative  proportion  of  phosphate  to 
carbonate  in  the  blood  may  vary  within  narrow  limits  and  make 
little  practical  difference  in  the  estimation  of  total  alkalinity. 
Regarding  the  matter  of  indicators,  it  is  agreed  among  chemists 
that  the  amount  of  a  chemical  indicator  needed  to  induce  a  color- 
change  with  an  acid  or  alkali,  varies  with  the  indicator,  and  com- 
prehensive data  have  been  published  showing  the  extent  of  such 
variations. 
