A text-book of human physiology : designed for the use of practitioners and students of medicine / by Austin Flint.

  • Flint, Austin, 1836-1915.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A text-book of human physiology : designed for the use of practitioners and students of medicine / by Austin Flint. 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.

    39/1010 (page 17)
    puscles, which latter are particularly rich in the salts of potassn. Iron exists in the col- oring matter of the corpuscles. In addition, the corpuscles contain cholesterine, lece- thine, a certain amount of fatty matter, and probably some of the organic saline princi- ples of the blood. GloiuUne.—IioWett, by alternately freezing and thawing blood several times in succes- sion in a platinum vessel, has succeeded in separating the coloring matter from the red cor- puscles. When the blood is afterward warmed and liquefied, the fluid is no longer opaque, but is dark and transparent. Microscopical examination then reveals the corpuscles, entire- ly decolorized and floating in a red, semitransparent serum. Denis extracted the organic principle of the corpuscles by adding to deflbrinated blood about one-half its volume of a solution of chloride of sodium containing one part in ten of water. Allowing this to stand for from ten to fifteen hours, there appears a viscid mass, which is very carefully washed with water until all the coloring matter and the salt added has been removed. The whitish, translucid mass which remains is called globuline. Denis has also ex- tracted a small quantity of fibrin from the corpuscles. Globuline is readily extracted from the blood of birds, but is obtained with difficulty from the blood of the human subject. EmmagloUne.—Th.\B is the coloring matter of the red corpuscles. It has been called by different writers, hfemaglobuline or hEematocrystalline; but the crystals called hisma- tine and htematosine are derivatives of hasmaglobine and are not true proximate princi- ples. Hffimaglobine may be extracted from the red corpuscles by adding to them, when congealed, ether, drop by drop. A jelly-like mass is then formed, which is passed rap- idly through a cloth, crystals soon appearing in the liquid, which may be separated by filtration. (Gautier.) The crystals of hsemaglobine extracted from human blood are in the form of four- sided prisms, elongated rhomboids, or rectangular tablets, of a purplish-red color. They are composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, and a small quantity of iron. They are soluble in water and in very dilute alkaline solutions, and the haamaglo- bine is precipitated from these solutions by ferrocyanide of potassium, nitrate of mer- cury, chlorine, or acetic acid. The proportion of this coloring matter to the entire mass of blood is about one hxmdred and twenty-seven parts per thousand. It constitutes from -^f to ^ of the dried corpuscles. A solution of hsemaglobine in one thousand parts, examined with the spectroscope, gives two dark bands between the letters D and E in Frauenhofer's scale. Treated with oxygen or prepared in fluids in contact with the air, there occurs a union of oxygen with the coloring matter, forming what has been called oxyhasmaglobine. There can be no doubt that the oxygen enters into an intimate, though rather unstable combination with htemaglobine, and this is an important point to be considered in con- nection with the absorption of oxygen by the blood in respiration'. A solution of oxy- hoemaglobine presents a diflPerent spectrum from a solution of pure hromaglobine. If wo examine a solution of oxyhesmaglobine with the^ spectroscope and then discharge the oxygen by prolonged ebullition in a vacuum, the characteristic bands of pure hsBma- globine make their appearance. The union of oxygen with hjemaglobine is unstable and the oxgen can he removed by a current of hydrogen, nitrous oxide, or carbonic acid. A current of carbonic oxide displaces the oxygen, and the carbonic oxide forms a very sta- ble combination with the coloring matter. It is well known that carbonic oxide is a very poisonous gas, which becomes fixed in the corpuscles so that they become inca- pable of absorbing oxygen. According to recent observations, oxygen combined with haamaglobine exists in the condition of ozone. A solution of oxyhoBmaglobine is readily decomposed by a current of sulphuretted hydrogen, forming, like ozone, water and a precipitate of sulphur. 2