The ultra-violet absorption spectra of blood sera

Abstract
At the end of the year 1913 there was introduced a new kind of sector spectrophotometer designed especially for investigation of the ultra-violet spectrum. The possibility of applying the new instrument to the furtherance of medical and physiological science was soon appreciated by the author, and in conference with Dr. C. E. Wheeler it was decided that a study of the ultra-violet absorption spectra of blood sera might lead to results which would be both valuable to science and applicable to clinical practice. The proposal was placed before the Beit Research Fund Committee, the trustees of a fund which had been placed at the disposal of the British Homœopathic Association by Mr. Otto Beit for purposes of scientific research. The necessary support was liberally given by the Association, and still further funds are allotted for continuing the work. The absorption spectra of blood have engaged the attention of many able and distinguished workers, but the investigation has usually had reference to the visible spectra of hæmoglobin and other colourings and to derivatives of these. The work now to be described has for its object the investigation of the absorption spectra of blood sera in the ultra-violet region. The serum is freed as much as possible from corpuscles by the centrifuge, and the clear pale yellow liquid itself is studied with a view to determining the various characteristics of the absorption bands and to finding how these may be accounted for.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: