Abstract
When leukocyte counts are made at short time intervals (5 or 10 minutes) in human subjects or in experimental animals the fluctuations afford an excellent index of the autonomic balance of the splanchnoperipheral system. 1 In addition to this tide, the general leukocytic level will reflect the functional status of the bone marrow and the lymphatic system.
In the course of observations on various constitutional types and their reactions to the environment, we have made daily leukocyte counts under morning basal conditions. These revealed several interesting facts. First, that the leukocytic level is rather characteristic of the constitutional type, the pyknic in general having the most deficient bone marrow and the higher leukocytic levels.
Second, that the fluctuations in the level occur simultaneously in all individuals. While the pyknic may react more vigorously, the leptosome and the asthenic show a synchronous increase or decrease in the level, although the fluctuations may be of minor degree in such persons as might be anticipated from their general somatic reactivity.
Third, that these fluctuations are meteorologically conditioned. Inasmuch as the meteorological environment in its many components offers many individual factors that influence the organism (temperature, humidity, pressure, ionization, etc.) an arbitrary identification of any one might be premature, but we note the association of change in the barometric pressure as particularly striking to the change in the leukocyte count.
It would appear that periods of stimulation and recovery of the bone marrow are characteristic events in our latitude. The inference might follow that we may have too much or too little of such stimulation for certain types of individuals. The clinical pictures that might follow therefrom are readily demonstrable and will be discussed elsewhere. The appended graph illustrates the daily leukocyte count in 4 normal young men.
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