Abstract
Red blood corpuscles can be suspended, without direct injury, in a medium containing 1 per cent. of boric acid.
The corpuscles so treated are completely hemolyzed by sudden immersion in a suitable volume of isotonic saline or sugar solution, or in serum.
Sudden immersion of the treated corpuscles in any volume of concentrated saline or sugar solutions does not cause hemolysis and after such immersion the treated corpuscles are found to have lost their sensitiveness to immersion in isotonic saline solutions.
The gradual addition of a hemolytic volume of isotonic saline solution to the treated blood corpuscles causes no hemolysis and after such addition the treated corpuscles are found to have lost their sensitiveness to sudden immersion in isotonic saline solutions.
These observations indicate that the force operative in the “boric acid hemolysis” is that of osmotic pressure and this assumption is confirmed by the demonstration of a diffusion of the reagent into the corpuscles and by the fact that, for corpuscles that have been treated with a certain concentration of the boric acid, the minimal non-hemolytic concentrations of various substances are of identical “osmotic concentration “.
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