Open AccessThe blood volume of mammals as determined by experiments upon rabbits, guinea-pigs, and mice, and its relationship to the body weight and to the surface area expressed in a formula
Author(s) -
Georges Dreyer,
William Ray
Publication year - 1910
Publication title -
proceedings of the royal society of london. series b, containing papers of a biological character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9185
pISSN - 0950-1193
DOI - 10.1098/rspb.1910.0048
Subject(s) - blood volume , body weight , guinea pig , volume (thermodynamics) , physiology , zoology , hemoglobin , biology , immunology , medicine , endocrinology , physics , quantum mechanics
The blood volume of animals has for many years been the subject of numerous investigations. This is but natural, considering its great importance for the study of disease. As, however, the results obtained are very discordant, we have determined the blood volumes of rabbits, guinea-pigs, and mice by Welcker’s methos, by washing out the circulating system, and by following the percentage fall of hæmoglobin after bleeding. Our experiments have given the following results:- (1) The blood volume of living mammals can be determined very accurately by bleeding the animals (about 20 percent. of its original blood volume) and determining the percentage fall of hæmoglobin at the moment when equilibrium is reached. This method gives results remarkably concordant with those obtained by washing out the circulating system. In employing this method it is absolutely essential that the animals that the animals should not have been bled before.