Influence of Anoxemia on the Hemopoietic Activity

The exact mechanism responsible for the maintenance of an equilibrium between production and destruction of blood in the normal person is not entirely understood, but it has become an almost established fact that the oxygen tension of the circulating blood is an important factor in regulating the degree of hemopoietic activity. Since the observations of Bert 1 and Viault, 2 in the second half of the last century, it has been customary to refer to the polycythemia found in human beings and animals exposed to a low barometric pressure as the classic example of the stimulating effect of oxygen deficiency on erythrocyte and hemoglobin formation. The demonstration by Barcroft and his collaborators 3 in 1923 that newcomers and residents at high altitudes exhibit a lowering of the arterial oxygen saturation as a consequence of the low oxygen tension in the inspired air opened a most fertile field for the accurate