Abstract:
Only one case being available no general deductions as to the changes in the blood resulting from a P. bigeminhum infection are permissive. Summarising the above case one notices marked increases in nearly all the nitrogenous fractions and in sugar, associated with the period of maximum erythrocyte destruction. The efficacy of the kidneys renders a rapid excretion of all "free" haemoglobin possible, but apparently the excretion of urea is retarded temporarily, leading to an increase in the blood for 2-3 days. The rise in A.A.N. is peculiar, particularly if it be remembered that the animal ceased feeding just during the period in which the A.A.N. was highest. Conceivably the increase is due to the protein decomposition rather than an interference with the absorption from the intestines and deaminisation of amino-acids in the liver. On the other hand the liver has a severe strain placed on it by the secretion of abnormally large amounts of bile pigments as a result of the excessive erythrocyte destruction and deaminosation may thereby be temporarily interferred with. If this is the correct interpretation the increase in urea would find its explanation not in increased formation, but in retention or retarded excretion through the kidneys, possibly due to degenerative changes. More research is necessary before any definite modus vivendi for the various observations can be formulated and substantiated. In the meantime the case is of interest in so far as it indicates some of the changes in composition resulting during a fulminant severe erythrolysis.
