The development of the child.

  • Oppenheim, Nathan, 1865-1916.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The development of the child. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    eight-tenths is to one hundred while the stroma is richer. Again, the amount of fibrinogen is relatively small, as two is to seven. The amount of sodium in solution is larger and the potassium smaller. There is a lessened tendency to coagulation. In early fcetal life the red corpuscles are nucleated, and do not attain their normal condition until after birth. Moreover, they are greater in number. Likewise is the infant’s blood richer in white corpuscles than the adult’s; it is richer in the so-called young-form elements, while the “over-ripe” elements are only half as many. These white corpuscles remain relatively longer in the “unripe” condition than in adults, while the lat- ter show a larger percentage of the “over-ripe.” In short, the blood of the new-born child is so clearly different from its later form, that Gundobin calls it, ac- cording to the ordinary standard of morphology, patho- logical. The difference in degree is so marked as to amount almost to a difference in kind. Finally, the weight of the infant’s blood is relatively smaller than that of the adult’s. During the whole course of growth there are the constant factors of variation, of irregularity. These point indubitably to the fact that infancy and child- hood are solely times of preparation, that in them- selves they have no fixed status. And experience shows that this condition of change is easily affected one way or another. As an example, one may take