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BLOOD-CORPUSCLES AND GASES. VISCOSITY. 3U
by the influence of the respiratory exchange of gas. The blood-corpuscles
give up a part of the alkali united with protein to the serum by the action
of carbon dioxide, hence the serum becomes more alkaline. The equilib-
rium of the osmotic tension in the blood-corpuscles and in the serum
is thus disturbed; the blood-corpuscles swell up because they take up
water from the serum, and this then becomes more concentrated and richer
in alkali, protein, and sugar. Under the influence of oxygen, the cor-
puscles take their original form again and the above changes are reversed.
The blood-corpuscles for this reason are less biconcave in their small
diameter in venous than in arterial blood (Hamburger).
These conditions have been further studied by v. Koranyi and
Bence,1
and they have investigated the relation between the changes of
the volume of the blood-corpuscles and the electrical conductivity, the
refractivity of the serum and the viscosity of the blood. The refrac-
tion coefficient of the serum is highest with an increase in the amount of
carbon dioxide, while it is lowest when the blood is rich in oxygen and
poor in carbon dioxide. They consider this as an action of acid, as a
similar rise is observed after the addition of acid, while after the addition
of alkali a fall in the refraction coefficient of the serum takes place, and
these same changes can be brought about by CO2 or by a current of oxygen.
With an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide, the conductivity
of the blood diminishes; the viscosity is, on the other hand, highest
when the blood is richest in carbon dioxide. If the CO2 is driven off
by O the viscosity diminishes to a minimum, and on leading in more
oxygen it rises again. The changes in viscosity of the blood runs parallel
with the volume changes of the blood-corpuscles, and changes in the
viscosity, which can be brought about by the removal of carbon dioxide,
cause a change in the electric charge of the blood-corpuscles (v. Koranyi
and Bence). The viscosity of the blood is a variable quantity which,
besides the gas content of the blood, is also dependent upon many other
circumstances (Adam 2
) and which is different at various ages and under
unequal physiological and pathological conditions.
The color of the blood is red—light scarlet-red in the arteries and dark
bluish-red in the veins. Blood free from oxygen is dichroic, dark red
by reflected light and green by transmitted light. The blood-coloring
matters occur in the blood-corpuscles. For this reason blood is opaque
Pfliiger’s Arch., 58; Hamburger, Arch. f. (Anat. u.) Physiol., 1894 and 1898, and
Zeitschr. f. Biologie, 28 and 35; v. Limbeck, Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 35; Giirber,
Sitzungsber. d. phys. med. Gesellsch. zu Wiirzburg, 1895.
1
Pfliiger’s Arch., 110.
- In regard to the viscosity of the blood and the literature of the subject, see R.
Hober in Oppenheimer’s Handb. der Bioch., 2, p. 12-18. See also Adam Zeitschr
f. klin. Med., 68.
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