The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-10-12

Ills GOluillIls
this suggestion from al anxious
mother, wife or husband. Or the
parents hear it from a solicitous
neighbor.
Sometimes the suggestion is
justified. The doctor may be so
preoccupied with the primary dis
ease that he overlooks the second
airy damage it has done to the
blood, and the correction OF this
by a diet rich in iron may turn the
scales and start the invalid on the
road to recovery.
There is one thing sure. II the
doctor thinks the suggestion is
pertinent he can find out exactly
and in the most scientific way all
about the condition of his pa
tents blood. Our knowledge on
the subject is most complete.
Blood q Tissue
The blood is a tissue just IS
muscle or bone or liver are tissues.
1t consists of cells and matriX or
intercellular substance. The only
popularity in the case Of the blood
being that the intercellular sub
stance is fluid. 1t has to be be-
cause the function Of the blood is
that Of a messenger to carry
chemical substances from one part
Of the body to the other, and a mes
senger has TO be fluid. He has to be
able to move.
When the pathologist pricks
your finger or your ear lobe TO get
a drop of blood, it looks like an
opaque red drop. But you know by
experience that if you put the
drop on a glass surface, or collect
enough blood in test tube TO see
the phenomenon easily that Il will
separate out into a hard, sticky,
tenacious red clotted part, and a
clear straw-colored fluid. The clear
fluid, or serum, contains most of
the chemicals that the blood car
ries from tissue to tissue, and the
red. part contains the blood cells.
1t is these blood cells that are
deficient in cases of anemia.
We have modern means Of
studying them very completely.
AS long ago as about 1870, a Ger
man professor of medicine marked
of a space on a capillary tube so
that it would contain exactly one
cubic millimeter and filled it with
his own blood and then emptied
that blood out on a microscope
slide, and with the aid of the mi
croscope counted every one of the
red blood cells. He found there
were six million. And on counting
the same amount of blood taken
from a number Of his associates
he found that in all healthy hui
mans that amount was absolutely
constant
Modern Methods OF Counting
But counting up to six million
is quite a chore, and the modern
laboratory technician has simpli-
fed it by diluting the blood very
exactly in salt solution and put
ting it in one of the finest cali
brated chambers you ever saw and
counting only the number Of red
cells in a given square and cor
recting by multiplication, he can
give you the number Of red cells
you have in about five minutes.
And since the original observa-
tons it has been confirmed over
and over that all healthy human
beings from birth to old age, male
and female, have about six million
cells per cubic millimeter.
After you have given blood to
The blood bank your count goes
down for a week or two. You have,
in fact, a mild secondary anemia.
Your bone marrow, which is the
manufacturing plant for red blood
cells soon makes this up. When a
disease like influenza or some
other infection, knocks out your
bone marrow your count goes
down and here the treatment is to
give food or drugs which stimu.
late the marrow-liver, spinach
red meat, iron and arsenic.
The pathologist will also esti-
mate how red your blood is, be-
cause that tells the amount of
hemoglobin which is the iron-con-
tanning pigment in the red blood
cells. 1t carries oxygen from the
lungs to the tissues and when 1t is
low in anemic people they get
short Of breath for that reason.