OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHEMICAL PATHOLOGY OF THE BLOOD IN PERNICIOUS ANEMIA AND OTHER SEVERE ANEMIAS

INTRODUCTION  This study is confined to fundamental chemical conditions of the blood in pernicious and severe secondary anemia and, for comparison, to a study of the same conditions in one series of normal subjects and in another series of pathologic conditions other than anemias. We found early in our study that the total blood solids in clearly diagnosed cases of pernicious anemia were extraordinarily low. From the comparison series above mentioned it appeared that so great an abnormal deviation is so uncommon an occurrence in other pathologic conditions as to make extremely low blood solids one of the pathologic characteristics of pernicious anemia and severe secondary anemia. Further observation showed marked deviation from normal values in the total nitrogen of the whole blood in this condition but a much less pronounced deviation in the total nitrogen of the plasma. However, on studying the ratio of the whole blood nitrogen to