Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/749

 BLOOD 729 conclusion is that there is 1 Ib. of blood for 8 or 9 of the animal, and therefore from 18 to 20 Ibs. of blood in a man weighing 160 Ibs. From all these facts it results that the quantity of blood in an adult man is very likely a little above 20 Ibs. There is more blood in men than in women. It is not positively determined whether a fat or a lean person has most blood ; but Schultz says that there is more blood in lean oxen than in fat ones. Berard justly re- marks that it is a mistake to believe that there is proportionally more blood in newly born chil- dren than in adults. III. COMPOSITION OF THE BLOOD. There is no fluid in the body having so complex a composition as the blood. This fact may be easily understood, as we know that through the blood passes everything that is going to or coining from all parts of the body, either solid or liquid. The chemical analysis of the blood is extremely difficult, and much is still to be learned as regards its com- position. On comparing the results obtained by various experimenters who have analyzed the blood, we find a great difference between them. Gorup-Besanez has proved that these differences depend mostly on the method of analysis ; for he found that when four samples of the same blood were analyzed by himself according to the four principal methods, the results were strikingly different, as the follow- ing table will show : AUTHORS OF THE VARIOUS METHODS. MM* Becquerel and Rodler. Hoefle. Gonip-B- urnez Water 796-93 203-07 1-95 115-16 68-82 27-14 796-98 203-07 1-95 117-82 68-87 19-48 796-98 203-07 1-95 108-28 80-84 47-05 796-98 208-07 195 108-28 70-75 27-14 Solid matters. . . Fi brine Corpuscles Albumen Extractive mat- ters and salts. Hence it is of no value to compare researches on the composition of blood in disease in men at different ages, or in different animals, made by experimenters who have employed different methods. The following table represents the composition of normal human blood, according to the researches of Lehmann. It will be seen that the proportion of corpuscles is notably larger than in the former table. 1. Water i. Solid re- sidue H 204-55. r 1. Fibrine. 2-025 8-375 141-110 39-420 2-015 8-270 J 2-665' 090 6fiS 1-825 2-197 585 212 143 J 2. Corpuscle 8. Albumen 4. Fatty mat 6. Extractive 6. Mineral substances, exclusive of iron . ( Hrematine .... < Globulinc&cel ( membrane.. matters Chlorine Sulphuric acid... Phosphoric acid Potassium ... . Phosphate of Phosphate of ^ magnesia .... 795-45 196-215 8-835 This is another proof of the differences due to methods of analysis : in the last case, the cor- puscles of the blood have not been deprived of their salts, and therefore their weight is more considerable than in cases where they lose a part of their constituents before being weighed. Many other substances are found in the blood besides those above enumerated. Among the fatty matters we find the saponifiable fats (which chiefly consist of oleate and margarate of soda), a phosphorized fatty matter, choles- terine, and seroline. Besides these substances, there is probably also one or many volatile fatty acids, to which the blood owes its odor. The so-called extractive substances of the blood are very different from each other, some of them being nitrogenized matters, while others are not. Among these substances are found what Mulder calls binoxide and tri- toxide of proteine and sugar, urea, uric and hippuric acids, creatine, creatinine, &c. In the blood vessels, and during life, blood con- sists essentially of two parts, which differ ex- tremely: one is solid, the corpuscles or glo- bules, the other is liquid, the liquor sanguinis. According to Lehmann, the corpuscles form fully one half of the volume of the blood. Their analysis compared to that of the liquor sanguinis shows that they differ much from it : 1,000 parti of blood corpuscle* con- 1,000 parts of liquor sanguinis con- Water.... ,..68300 Water.... 902-90 Solid residue 812-00, Solid residue 97-11) Ilaematine (including iron) 16-75 Globullne and cell mem- brane 282-22 Fat 2-81 Extractive matters 2-60 Mineral substances 8-12 Fibrlne 4-05 Albumen 78-84 Fat 1-72 Extractive matters 8-94 Mineral substances .... 8*55 1. Chlorine 2. Sulphuric acid 8. Phosphoric acid. .. 4. Potassium 5. Sodium 6. Oxygen 7. Phosphate of lime . . 8. Phosphate of mag- nesia 1-686 [ 1. Chlorine 8-644 0-066 i 2. Sulphuric acid 0-115 1-184 j 8. Phosphoric acid. . . . 0-191 8-828 I 4. Potassium 0-828 1-052 5. Sodium 8-841 0-667 6. Oxygen 0-408 0-114 7. Phosphate of lime. . 0-811 j 8. Phosphate of mag- 0-078 ! nesla 0-222 Of the many metals found in the blood, the most important seems to be iron, which is found not only in the blood, but, according to M. Verdeil, in all the coloring matters of the body. Iron in the blood is found only in the corpuscles, combined with the coloring matter, the hmatine. According to Lecanu, there is 7 per cent, of iron in hasmatine. In 15 kilo- grammes(33 Ibs.) of blood, the proportion of hee- matine is about 34 grammes (1 oz.), and there- fore the quantity of iron is nearly 2'42 grammes (nearly 50 grains). Copper was found in the blood by Sarzeau, and manganese by Denis. Millon ascertained the constant existence of these two metals, and also of lead, in the blood. These metals exist in greater quantity in the globules than in the liquor sanguinis. It is very important to know that these metals, and particularly copper, exist normally in the blood, to avoid mistakes that might be made