The partition of CO(2) between plasma and corpuscles in oxygenated and reduced blood.

IT has been shown by Zuntz(l), Alexander Schmidt(2), and Fre'de'ricq(3)2, that the serum of blood contains more C02 than the corpuscles. On the other hand, it is stated that if C02 acts on the serum and corpuscles which have been separated from one another, then the corpuscles contain more C02 than the serum. This has been explained by an interchange of acid and basic radicles between corpuscles and serum which is considered to occur naturally in the blood. Such an interchange is supported by Ham b urger' s experiments (4), and also confirmed by those of Van Slyke and Cullen(5), which showed that treating blood with C02 caused the plasma to lose chlorine which must have entered the corpuscles. Quite recently d e Bo e r (6) has shown that there is also a loss of sulphate from the plasma under these conditions. In the present research the attempt has been made to study systematically the partition of C02 between corpuscles and plasma at different C02 pressures in human blood. 1 The expenses of this investigation were defrayed by a grant from the Royal Society. 2 See also Loewy's account in Oppenheimer's Hdb. d. Bioch. (Jena 1911), 4, Pt. I, p. 64.