THE RESISTANCE OF THE RED BLOOD CELLS TO HYPOTONIC SALT SOLUTION IN THE VARIOUS ANEMIAS

Abstract

The resistance of the red blood cells has been extensively studied in the last few years, in various connections. There seems to be a considerable discrepancy in the results of the various investigators as to whether or not the resistance to hypotonic salt solution is raised or lowered in primary and secondary anemias. The purpose of this paper is to report a somewhat larger series of cases with anemia than has before been studied, as it is felt that the discrepancies in the results of various investigators may have been due to the fact that not enough cases were studied. There are different ways of studying the resistance of the red cells. The methods used have been three: The physicochemical method, with hypotonic salt solution. The chemical method, with saponin or allied substances. The biological method, with specific hemolysins. It cannot be said that any one