Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - V. The Blood - III. The Blood as a Mixture of Plasma and Blood-corpuscles
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
ALKALINITY OF THE BLOOD. 309
by means of the pyknometer. For clinical purposes, where only small
amounts are available, it is best to proceed by the method as suggested
by Hammerschlag. Prepare a mixture of chloroform and benzene of
about 1.050 sp. gr. and add a drop of the blood to this mixture. If the
drop rises to the surface then add benzene, and if it sinks add chloroform.
Continue this until the drop of blood suspends itself midway and then
determine the specific gravity of the mixture by means of an areometer.
This method is not strictly accurate and must be performed quickly.
In regard to the necessary details refer to Zuntz and A. Levy. 1
The reaction of the blood is alkaline toward litmus, and various bodies
such as alkali carbonates, the phosphates, alkali-protein combinations,
the amino-acids and carbon dioxide all take part in bringing about the
normal reaction. According to Henderson 2
the normal reaction is
also partly brought about by ammonia formation and partly by the
phosphates, in that the kidneys secrete acid salts (phosphates) and return
alkali to the blood and regulate the reaction of the blood.
In considering the alkalinity of the blood we must, as previously
remarked, differentiate between the amount of titratable alkali in the blood
and the true alkalinity, i.e., the amount of hydroxyl or hydrogen ions
in the blood.
We have a large number of determinations of the quantity of titratable
alkali, calculated as Na2C03, in fresh as well as defibrinated blood of
animals and man, and in the latter case under healthy and diseased con-
ditions. As these determinations have been carried out with dif-
ferent methods which were not without error they cannot be given any
great importance. The results found generally vary between 3 and 6
p. m. Na2CC>3 and for man the figures below 3.3 p. m. and above 5.3 p. m.
are considered as pathological. The alkaline reaction diminishes out-
side of the body, and indeed the more quickly the greater the original
alkalinity of the blood. This depends on the formation of acid in the
blood, in which the red-blood corpuscles seem to take part in some way or
another. After excessive muscular activity the alkalinity is diminished
(Peiper, Cohnstein), and it is also decreased after the continuous
ingestion of acids (Lassar, Freudberg,3
) and others.
1
Zuntz, Pfliiger’s Arch., 66; Levy, Proceed. Roy. Soc, 71.
2
Amer. Journ. of Physiol., 21, and Journ. of biol. Chem., 9; see also Robertson,
ibid., 6 and 7.
3
Peiper, Virchow’s Arch.. 116; Cohnstein, ibid., 130, which also cites the works
of Minkowski, Zuntz, and Geppert; Freudberg, ibid., 125 (literature); in regard to the
methods for the estimation of the alkalinity see, besides the above-mentioned authors,
v. Jaksch, Klin. Diagnostik; v. Limbeck, Wien. med. Blatter, 18; Wright, The Lancet,
1897; Biernacki, Beitrage zur Pneumatologie, etc., Zeitschr. f. klin. Med.. 31 and
32; Hamburger, Eine Methode zur Trennung, etc., Arch., f. (Anat, u.) Physiol.,
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
