The effect of exercise on the hæmoglobin with reference to the value of rest in the treatment of anæmia / by Wilfrid Edgecombe.

  • Edgecombe, Wilfrid.
Date:
[1898?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The effect of exercise on the hæmoglobin with reference to the value of rest in the treatment of anæmia / by Wilfrid Edgecombe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    In each case a fall in percentage of haemoglobin took place, with a rise in percentage volume of corpuscles, and, consequently, a fall in the “worth” of the corpuscle. Where profuse perspiration occurred the rise in percentage of corpuscles is considerable, due partly to concentration of the blood by withdrawal of fluid ; hence the fall in worth in this case, the exercise being more violent, is greater than in that where no sensible perspiration took place. tSmniatly the average night rise in the worth of the coi> puscle that succeeded the day fall on exercise days amounted to 9 3 per cent.; whereas the night rise succeeding the day fall of no-exercise days only amounted to 6 i per cent., a gain of 3 2 per cent, rise after exercise. Thus the augmented day fall is followed by an augmented nigrit rise. Comparing these two we find that the average increase in the night rise after exercise (3.2 per cent.) is in excess of the average in¬ creased fall that immediately follows exercise (3 0 per cent.), which tends to show that the latter has a secondary effect in stimulating the formation of haemoglobin. This position is corroborated by a farther examination of the record. The morning observations (when the blood is at its highest point) of the days immediately following exercise were compared with the morning observations of the exercise days themselves ; and similarly the morning readings of the days following no exercise were compared with those of the previous mornings, with the object of determining whether the worth of the corpuscle was higher on the morning after exercise than on the morning of the day of exercise itself ; or lower on a morning after a no-exercise day than on the morning of the no-exercise day itself, with the following results : Morning Readings following Exercise Days compared with Morning Readings of Exercise Days themselves. Thirty five Observations. Worth of norpuscJe higher ou the following morning than on previous : 10 times, or 28.5 per cent.average increase, 2.8 per cent. Worth of corpuscle lower on the following morning than on previous : 15 times, or 42.9 per cent. — average decrease, 1.8 per cent. Worth of corpuscle equal on both occasions : 10 times, or 28.5 per cent. Morning Reactin' s following no-Exercise Days compared with Morning Readings of no- Exercise Days themselves. Sixty-five Observations. Worth of corpuscle lower on following morning : 2x times, or 32.3 per cent ... . average decrease, 2.5 per cent. Worth of corpuscle higher on following morning : 25 times, or 38 4 per cent.average increase, 2.1 per cent. Worth of corpuscle equal on both occasions : 19 times, or 28.7 per cent. Average increase of 0.7 per cent, following exercise. ,, decrease of 0.7 per cent. ,, no exercise. This was in one way contrary to expectation, for the worth of the corpuscle read higher on the morning after exercise days than on the morning of the exercise days only ten times, whereas it read lower 15 times, being equal ten times in 35 observations. Also the worth of the corpuscle on the morn¬ ing following no exercise days read lower than on the pre¬ vious morning less frequently (21 times) than it read higher (25 times), thus tending to show a greater formation of usemoglobin as the result of no exercise than of exercise. But comparing the average amount of increase and decrease in the two cases, the reverse is seen to be the case. For the average increase after exercise days (when an increase took place) amounted to 2.8 per cent., while the average increase after no-exercise days amounted to only 2.1 per cent., a gain of 0.7 per cent, in favour of exercise. Arid further, the average decrease after exercise days (when