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340 THE BLOOD.
ilal le protein compounds from being eliminated as iron sulphide (Bunge),
a view which is now generally discarded.
An increase in the number of red corpuscles, takes place after trans-
fusion of blood of the same species of animal. According to the observa-
tions of Panum and Worm Muller,1
the blood-liquid is quickly eliminated
and transformed in this case—the water being eliminated principally
by the kidneys and the protein burned into urea, etc.—while the blood-
corpuscles are preserved longer and cause a " polycythcemia." A relative
increase in the number of red corpuscles is found after abundant transuda-
tion from the blood, as in cholera and heart-failure with considerable
congestion. An increase in the number of red blood-corpuscles has
also been observed under the influence of diminished pressure or in high
altitudes. Viault first called attention to the fact that the number of
red corpuscles was very great in the blood of man and animals living
in high regions. According to him the llama has about 16 million blood-
corpuscles per cubic millimeter. By observations on himself and others,
as well as on animals, Viault found the first effect of sojourning in high
altitudes was a very considerable increase in the number of red corpuscles,
in his own case 5-8 millions. In a young man residing for four weeks
in 2900 meters altitude, Lacqueur observed an increase in the erythro-
cytes as well as the haemoglobin in the unit volume of the blood. The
maximum, which appeared first after 15 days, was 15 per cent increase
for the erythrocytes and 16 per cent for the haemoglobin. He also
found that dogs from whom about one-half of the blood was drawn required
at 2900 meters altitude, on an average of 16 days to replace the same,
while at the normal level this requires on an average of 27 days or in
round numbers an increase of 70 per cent. Both observations show
a re-formation of blood under the influence of high altitude. Cohnheim
and Weber 2
found in 23 men engaged on the Jungfrau railroad, who had
lived for a long time in high altitudes that the number of erythrocytes
(5.2-6.3 million) as well as the haemoglobin (generally 87-94 as com-
pared to 80 per cent as normal) was higher than under normal conditions,
and they consider this as a proof for the actual formation of blood-
corpuscles in high altitudes. A similar increase of the red blood-cor-
puscles, as also an increase in the quantity of haemoglobin under the
influence of diminished pressure, has been observed by many other inves-
tigators, in human beings as well as in animals. Investigators are not
united as to how this increase is brought about. The increase in the
blood-corpuscles is not absolute, but is only relative, and it is considered
by several observers that there is neither a new formation nor a dimin-
1
Panum, Yin-how’s Arch., 29; Worm Muller, 1. c.
I :
iquim, Deutscb. Arch. f. klin. Med., 110; Cohnheim and Weber, ibid., 110.
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