Elements of human physiology / by L. Hermann ; translated from the sixth edition by Arthur Gamgee.

  • Gamgee Arthur, 1841-1909.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of human physiology / by L. Hermann ; translated from the sixth edition by Arthur Gamgee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    90/620 (page 70)
    HEMOGLOBIN AND ITS RELATIONS TO GASES designated as unstable, seeing that, according to recent investigation (Donders, Zimtz,- Podolinsld they are also capable of decomposition by physical means; the pressure at which they decompose is, however, much lower than in the case of the oxygen compound. These CO- and NO-compounds are, like the 0-compound, not dichroic, and they possess two absorption bands, which in the carbonic oxide compound are somewliat differently situated from those in the other two analogous compounds. When O-IIjeraoglobin is decomposed by means of acids, tlie oxygen is not liberated and cannot be pumped out; it must, therefore, enter into chemical combination with one of the products of decom- position (L. Meyer, Zmitz, Strassburg). Seeing that the behaviour of the blood as a whole towards oxygen (carbonic oxide, &c.), as well as its optical properties and the dependence of these upon the gas contained in the blood, is exactly the same as that of a solution of haemoglobin, and, further, as blood when satm-ated with oxygen takes up almost exactly as much of that gas as corresponds to the amount which its haemo- globin can combine with, it follows that all the loosely combined oxygen of the blood is linked to haemoglobin. [One gramme of htemoglobin can, according to Preyer's observations, combine with 1-27 00 of oxygen at 0° 0 and one metre pressure. According to Hoppe- Seyler dog's blood contains on an average 13-79 per cent, of hajmoglobin. The amoimt of oxygen which this amount of htemoglobin would hold, if thoroughly satm-ated with oxygen, would then be 13-79 x 1-27 = 17-5 00. Ptiiiger actually found that arterial blood of the dog contains on an average 16-9 00 of oxygen gas measured at 0° 0 and 1 metre pressure.] The oxygen of the blood is given iip so readily to oxidizable substances that it has been thought to be present in the form of ' active oxygen' or ' ozone,' O3. The following properties of blood appeared to favour this view. 1. Both the blood corpuscles and hfemoglobin are so-called ' ozone-transferrers,' that is, they possess the power of immediately transferring ozone from substances in which it is present (as tm-pentine which has been kept for along time) to readily oxidizable substances (ozone reagents, such as tincture of guaiacum, which be- comes blue by oxidation, Schoenbein, His) ; for this reaction the presence or absence of oxygen in the blood is of no importance (for instance, it may be saturated with 00). 2. Blood and haemoglobin can themselves ozonize oxygen, so that in presence of air they can cause guaiacum tincture to become blue (A. Schmidt'') : if the blood itself contains oxygen, the presence of air is not necessary; it is necessary if the blood has been saturated with 00 (Kiihne and Scholz *). On the activity of its oxygen depends the decomposition of sul- phuretted hydrogen by blood. [The facts stated above afford no sufficient ground, however, for believing that the oxygen of blood exists in the condition of ozone. They woidd rather seem to show that oxygen, like other elements, at the moment of its liberation from chemical combination, i.e., when in a nascent condition, possesses chemical activities which do not belong to the free gas. Pfliiger has, indeed, expressed the opinion that the most striking of the 1 F. C. Bonders,' Der Chemismus der Athmung, ein Dissociations-Process.' Pfiiger's Archh, V, 2(l-5!G. 2 N. Zuntz,' 1st Kolilenoxydhamoglobin eine feste Verbindung ? ' Pfliiger'$ Archtv, v, 684-588. „ , 3 Podolinski,' Ueber die Austreibbarkeit des CO und NO aus dem Bhite. Pfluger s Archiv, \i, bbS. 4 Schmidt. 'O^on im Blut,' Dorpat. 1864 ; drchiv f. path. Anat. Bd. xhi, p. 249. s KUhne und Scholz, Archiv.f. path. Anat. Bd. xxxiii, p. 96.