CHEMICAL CHANGES OCCURRING IN THE BODY AS THE RESULT OF CERTAIN DISEASES

Abstract

Recently Peters, Bulger and others¹have discussed from a broader point of view than usual the acid base equilibrium of the plasma of adults in health and in disease. For several years we have had a similar interest in the chemical changes taking place in the blood of sick infants and children. Because the normal blood of the infant differs somewhat from that of the adult, containing about 10 per cent less electrolyte and protein, and because rapid and serious changes of great magnitude are frequently encountered in disease, it was thought that our observations might be of some interest, both in emphasizing the significance of the chemical changes in certain diseases already thoroughly discussed by Peters and his associates, and in pointing out changes occurring as the result of diseases more peculiar to infancy and childhood.² It is the purpose in this paper to present data secured