OBSERVATIONS ON THE CORRELATION BETWEEN AREA AND HÆMOGLOBIN CONTENT OF THE ERYTHROCYTE

¹ The Department of Physiology, Edinburgh University

The type of relation described by BÜRKER, between the hæmoglobin content of the red cell and the area of the cell, is not appreciably affected if the area be calculated by a more accurate formula. If the limit of resolution of the optical system employed, and the difficulty of measuring the diameter of the cell resulting from the production of a spurious disc at the cell margin, be considered, it is found that so great an error is attached to the initial measurements from which the volume and area are calculated, that it is fallacious to attach significance to the observation that a simple relation exists between the area of the cell and the hæmoglobin content, and not between the volume and the hæmoglobin content. Whether the best simple correlation is between area and hæmoglobin content, or between volume and hæmoglobin content, is impossible to decide from the existing figures, and probably even from the most accurate measurements of the cell which can be made.