Oxygen Transport with Fully Reduced Arterial Hæmoglobin in the Human Being

IT has been long known that infants, born with a transposition of the pulmonary artery and the aorta, may be living with a very cyanotic appearance. In two cases which lately came under our observation, not a trace of oxygenated hæmoglobin was found in the arterial blood with methods certainly sensitive to one per cent of oxygen saturation, although no further marked symptoms of oxygen want were present. The oxygen consumption of the two patients was not far from normal and, though we are not able to give a complete explanation of the curious conditions, we have found some interesting properties in the blood of one patient we had an opportunity of studying somewhat closely at the age of four months.