COPPER AND IRON IN HUMAN BLOOD

Abstract

In a previous publication,¹ some of us reported copper and iron values for maternal and fetal blood in 5 cases in which delivery was spontaneous and normal. It was shown that the maternal blood was in every case very rich in copper and in most cases somewhat low in iron, reflecting the so-called anemia of pregnancy. The fetal values presented in every case a very low content of copper and in all instances except one a high content of iron. Recently, Horváth and Hollósi² published observations which indicate that the polycythemia of the newborn, an almost universally accepted phenomenon, is absent in babies delivered by cesarean section and in those subjected to a minimum of birth trauma. They reported for these infants red cell counts which rarely exceeded 5,000,000 per cubic millimeter of blood. On the basis of this and of other data,³ they maintained also that