Clinical observations on the blood of the insane / by S. Rutherford MacPhail.
- MacPhail, Samuel Rutherford.
- Date:
- 1885
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Clinical observations on the blood of the insane / by S. Rutherford MacPhail. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
21/34 page 21
![individual attacks. As in the case of the hEemoglobin, the decrease apparently progresses in relation to the length and severity of the attack of excitement. Another noteworthy point is that the decrease in the percentage of hsemacytes during an attack of excitement progresses more rapidly than the increase during convalescence or between attacks. For example, in one case the percentage of haemacytes decreased in 14 days during an attack of excitement from 87*5 to 81'3 ; for the next fortnight the patient kept free of excite- ment, and during that time the percentage only increased to 84-4. f & J The proportion of white to red corpuscles varied from 1 in 170, to 1 in 480. The average of the 68 observations was 1 in 312. There were considerable variations in the proportions in each of the six cases, the proportions in one individual fluctuat- ing between 1 in 210, and 1 in 410. These fluctuations, however, did not occur in any constant ratio to the mental condition of the patients at the time of the observation. Although the proportion of white corpuscles was lower in the o]Dservations during the periods of freedom from excitement (30 observations, 1 in 317; 38 observations, 1 in 308), the variations were so numerous and irregular that no general con- clusion was possible. Crenated corpuscles were observed more frequently in the periods of quiescence than when the patients were excited. Small and irregular forms were more numerous during the excited stage, while small granule cells were observed with equal frequency at both periods. A more extended series of observations and greater frequency of examination in individual cases are necessary before one is justified in forming many deductions from the foregoing re- searches on the blood of female patients subject to attacks of periodic mania. There is one possible source of fallacy to which my attention was not drawn till I had completed my observations, and which in a great measure detracts from the scientific value of this portion of the subject. I refer to the influence of the catamenia in lowering the percentage of the blood corpuscles. Hunt * in a large number of observations on chlorotic anaemia, has shown that a definite numerical fall in the number of hsemacytes occurs shortly before the onset of the menstrual flow, and other observers, notably Gowers f and Willcocks^ X have made similar statements. It would be » Lancet, July 17th, 1880. f Practitioner, Vol. xxi, p. 11. X Practitioner, Vol. xxxi, page 103.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21461090_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
