Blood : a study in general physiology / by Lawrence J. Henderson.

  • Lawrence Joseph Henderson
Date:
1928
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Blood : a study in general physiology / by Lawrence J. Henderson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    we could deduce from this information all necessary in¬ formation concerning the physiological activity of blood. But theoretical treatment of the system has not reached the necessary stage of perfection to make this possible. Thus the choice of the five variables, total oxygen, total carbonic acid, hydrogen ion concentration of serum, the Donnan r, and cell volume, is an arbitrary one, or rather a result of the successive steps in the development of the subject. Within limits, some other choice of seven vari¬ ables would also serve, but the present choice is conven¬ ient and has been proved to be sufficient, with the excep¬ tion of the possible independent variations of the values of r just mentioned. It is hardly necessary to say that the choice of the con¬ centrations of the components as variables, though theo¬ retically an obvious one, would be very inconvenient in biological studies. But any choice must be such that by elimination among the equations, including the equations defining the chosen variables as functions of the com¬ ponents, it shall be ideally possible to obtain five, or, if the component H20 be included, six equations containing only the potentials of the seven or eight components as variables. To sum up, the facts now known may be represented by a series of equations which differ more or less for each specimen of blood. The experimentally determined equa¬ tions are as follows: Total C02 = f1 (PC02, p02), Total 02 = f2 (pC02, p02), [H+]s = <£3 (pC02, [BHC03]s), r — $4 ([H+], [Hb02]), v — 4>5 ([H+], [Hb02]). But the last three equations may all be transformed so as to yield the following set of five equations: Total C02 = f1 (pC02, p02), Total 02 = f2 (pC02, p02), (3) (4)
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