I. On the changes produced in the proportion of the red corpuscles of the blood by the administration of cod-liver oil

Abstract

Influenced by a conviction that the peculiarities essential to any disease are often associated with characteristic changes in the blood, and that the efficacy of many remedies depends on their power of modifying such conditions of the blood, I have made it an object to take opportunities of ascertaining some particulars regarding the composition of that fluid in certain diseased conditions prior to the use of remedies, and also in patients affected with similar maladies, but whose symptoms under the employment of medicines have been materially ameliorated. In reference to the inquiry, the proportion of red corpuscles would appear to be a circumstance of special signi­ficance, and to this question I have directed my chief care. In pur­suing the investigation, my attention has been particularly directed to cases of phthisis, as there was in this way afforded to me the greatest opportunity of comparing the largest amount of analogous instances. On the 27th of April, 1854, I had the honour of presenting to the Royal Society a short communication descriptive of the changes pro­duced in the blood by the administration of cod-liver oil and cocoanut oil, and advanced the conclusion deduced from chemical analysis, that any favourable result derived from the administration of these oils is associated with an increase in the proportion of red cor­puscles. Having availed myself of opportunities for continuing the investigation, I beg to present the results to the Society.