10 PATHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS OF
dulness of the lymphatic temperament, or with the languor and see of the anemic patient, shows that tho same rule holds good.
Inerease of Red Corpuscles.—Plethora is the chiof pathological con- dition in which an increase of red globules has been observed. One of the cases of cerobral congestion mentioned by Andral presented an amount of 138°6 parts per 1,000, an excess of 11 above the normal figure ; after venesection the globules in this case were so far dimi- nished that the quantity only amounted to 101:1 per 1,000, consider- ably below tho mean. In yarious fobrile diseases an augmentation of the globules has also been observed ; thus in the period immediately preceding the outbreak of continued fever their amount was once found as high as 157'7; in the early period of a case of severe inflammatory fever, tho fourth day of the disease, tho globules had attained the extraordinary height of 185 parts per 1,000, the roatest amount cver observed; in several casos oe typhoid fever fever with intestinal complication) the globules had risen to 142 or even 149, and even on the second bleeding were found still con- siderably above the mean ; in scarlatina and in measles an inerease in the amount of globules was also found, the maximum (which existed in the latter) being as much as 146. No increase was observed in cases of yariola or of modificd smallpox. A much increased proportion of red globules has been observed in cholera and other diseases in which a rapid drain of liquid from tho blood occurs. The rationale of this is plain.*
Some writers, especially Vogel, have drawn a distinction between relative and absolute variations in the number of red globules. Relative variations are such as have already been spoken of; absolute variations are alterations in the total number of globules present in the bedy, The latter are evidently the more import- ant, stnce the functional activity of the blood must depend on the absolute amount, and not on the proportion of red globules; but absolute detorminations are only possible when we know the absolute amount of blood in the body—a matter of which we shall speak hereafter. The condition of the general system co-existing with, and probably occasioned by, the increase in the amount of red globules is exaltation of the animal heat, heightencd sen- sibility, and muscular irritability: tho spirits are high, and the mental energy great, the pulse beats full and firm, the power of resistance to debilitating and morbid influences is considerable, the tendency in disease is to active inflammation and high febrile
- Té should be observed that the methods of analysis by which these numbers have
been obtained are far from trustworthy. They profess to give only the weight of dried corpuscles, and the exact relation of this to the real weight of the corpuscles is not known. A.more cxact though oxccodingly laborious method, is that of esunting, introduced by Weleker. According to this observer the blood of men contains in one cubic millimetre 5,000,000 red globules, that of women, 4,500,000, on the average, If the number exceed 5,500,000 for the mule or 5,000,000 for the female; or aguin, fall below 4,500,000 for the male or 4,000,000 for the female, the condition must be regarded as morbid.
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