Abstract
IN the recent correspondence touching the nature of the combination of hæmoglobin with oxygen, references have been made to Wo. Ostwald's absorption theory. It may clarify the issue if I remind readers of NATURE what that theory was. Wo. Ostwald argued that the equilibrium between oxygen and hæmoglobin could be expressed by a curve based on the following equation, X = KCm, where X is thf amount of oxygen combined with the hæmoglobin, C the concentration of oxygen in solution, K a quanrity proportional to the total mass of hæmoglobin present, and m a constant. The graphic expressior of this equation must necessarily be a simple curve which is at all points concave to the abscissa. No published curve representing the equilibrium between hæmoglobin and oxygen, which has been determined experimentally, is of this character, all being more or less S-shaped, though in some cases the convex inflection is very slight.
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BARCROFT, J. Adsorption and Hæmoglobin. Nature 111, 844 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/111844a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/111844a0
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