A study of the blood in cases of tuberculosis of the bones and joints / by John Dane.

  • Dane, John.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A study of the blood in cases of tuberculosis of the bones and joints / by John Dane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    they had beeu fasting between four and five hours. A more serious source of difficulty, however, lies in the leucocytosis arising from the age of the patients, which varied, with a single exception, from two and a half years to twelve years. Not only is there considerable difference of opinion as to what is to be considered a normal number for the total leucocyte count in chil- dren, but the proportion of the various kinds of leuco- cytes is also a matter of some dispute. As this matter of a fixed starting-point is one of much importance in determining the meaning of any given count, it will be well to quote some of the authorities on children’s blood. Schiff ® states it broadly that during “ child- hood ” the normal number of leucocytes is about 10,000. Bouchut and Dubrisay,® however, between the ages of two and fifteen years, find only 6,700. Emma Bayer,’ a pupil of Denis, places the number up to the sixth year at between 9,000 and 10,000 ; while Gundobin ® regards children of eight years as practi- cally adults as far as the blood is concerned. When we turn to the percentage of the various forms of leu- cocytes, although there is still quite a marked variation in the actual figures, yet upon some points all are agreed. It is certain that in the adult the polynuclear forms are greatly in excess of the mononuclear forms, while in childhood the reverse is the case, and as the child develops, the polynuclear variety steadily in- creases at the expense of the mononuclear elements. For the adult the figures of Klein represent, perhaps, as fair an average as any ; he finds that the lympho- cytes are represented by about 24 per cent, of the total number of leucocytes, the large mononuclear by 3 per cent., the polynuclear neutrophiles by 66 per cent., the » Schitf: Zeitschrift f. Heilkunde, Bd. xi, 1890. 8 Bauchut und Dubrisay : Gazette M6dioale de Paris, 1878. ’ Denis : lleckerches experimentelles sur le sang bumain consid^r^ i, l’4tat sain, Paris, 1830. * Gundobin : Jahrbuch f. Kinderh., Bd. xxv, 1893.