Copper and Iron in Human Blood

In a series of analyses previously made in this laboratory normal values for the copper and iron contents of the whole blood of adults were established. 1 It was shown that while the average values for copper were practically the same, irrespective of sex, values for iron and hemoglobin were appreciably lower for women, so that separate standards of hemoglobin values for men and for women were advocated. In a more recent report 2 values were established for copper, iron and hemoglobin for normal children, ranging from new-born infants to children of 15 years. The results in this series exhibited no sex variations, but the values fluctuated greatly with changes in age, especially in the first year of life. It was suggested that for greater reliability in clinical interpretation a hemoglobin curve is preferable to a single standard for children. The present study was undertaken to complete the series of