PROPERTIES OF THE BLOOD OF NEGROES AND WHITES IN RELATION TO CLIMATE AND SEASON

BY D. B. DILL, J. W. WILSON, F. G. HALL, AND SID ROBINSON

WITH THE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE OF F. CONSOLAZIO

(From the Fatigue Laboratory, Harvard University, Boston, the Department of Zoology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, and the Department

of Physiology, Indiana University, Bloomington)

(Received for publication, July 2, 1940)

It is now 100 years since Mayer voyaged as physician on a Dutch vessel to Java and noticed that blood from a superficial vein was more red in that climate than in Germany. He mis- takenly deduced that the production of heat and the process of oxidation must be less in torrid zones than in colder regions. Adolph (1) has pointed out some of the fallacies in Mayer’s inter- pretations. Blood from an arm vein may vary in composition without corresponding variations in mixed venous blood; the blood supply to the skin serves the function of regulating temperature as well as of transporting gas. In extremely high temperatures it may become arterial in character, while in great cold it may be nearly deoxygenated.

Petersen (2) has suggested that venous blood reflects changes in the weather. It is his thesis that the pH, CO2 content, and dependent properties of blood are so sensitive to temperature and barometric pressure that they respond in a predictable fashion to storm fronts. His work (2) contains a considerable body of data on the relation between the properties of blood and day-to-day variations in the weather. While we are prepared to accept the idea that there is some dependence of the properties of venous blood on weather, the degree of dependence of the properties of arterial blood on climate, weather, race, and the make-up of the individual is less clear. It is these latter questions with which we are here concerned.

The sites and seasons of our own observations are Boston through- 449

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450 Effect of Climate and Season on Blood

out the year, and Boulder City, Nevada, and Benoit, Mississippi, throughout the summer. Our subjects consist of male adult Whites and Negroes. We are indebted to Dr. Hastings and Dr. Shock for their having made available the dates corresponding to their published records on five men studied at Chicago through- out a period of 3 years (3). The maximum daily temperatures have been supplied by the United States Weather Bureau.

As intimated above, we have sought as a by-product of this study evidence of individual idiosyncrasies. It may be possible to characterize an individual as definitively by internal anatomical characteristics and by quantitative differences in function as by external anatomical features. While this possibility has not been explored in detail, there is much to be said in its support. Thompson, Corwin, and Aste-Salazar (4) have pointed out the dependence of the respiratory pattern, delineated on the pneumo- gram, on mental make-up and they have been able to associate certain types of pneumograms with certain mental illnesses. This implies that the functioning of the respiratory center is a distinc- tive physiological characteristic. Shock and Hastings (3) have shown that the cell volume and probably the pCOZ values for men and for women are significantly different. They also conclude that normal individuals differ significantly from one another in regard to the acid-base balance of their blood. The hemoglobin concentration in the blood of man reflects the balance between opposing forces, the formation and destruction of red cells, and hence this may be looked upon as giving a clue to the activity of certain tissues and organs. Similarly, the alkaline reserve (here- inafter referred to at 7’40 and defined as the COz-combining ca- pacity of oxygenated blood at pCO2 = 40 mm. of Hg and at 37’) depends on the ingress and egress of acids and on certain processes of intermediary metabolism; the CO2 content of arterial blood depends on alkaline reserve and respiratory regulation; the con- centration of protein in serum depends on its rate of movement through capillaries, on shifts of water between extra- and intra- cellular spaces, and on the water balance of the body as a whole. We do not propose to consider many of these points in detail, but think it worth while to emphasize that idiosyncrasies of the sub- jects as well as racial differences may render more difficult an assay of the effects of season and climate.

The existence of physiological differences between Negroes and

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Dill, Wilson, Hall, and Robinson 451

Whites other t,han those dependent on pigmentation and external anatomical features is suggested by t,he superior records of Negroes in track and field athletics and by the commonly expressed opinion that they have greater resistance to high temperat,ures than have Whites. So far, however, no one has demonstrated unique physio- logical characteristics of the Negro that might be related to the capacity for energy transformation. During our experiments we found opportunities to test both the major premise and the deductions that logically follow.

Methods

With the exception of the Boulder City data, arterial COz and O2 content and capacity were determined in the usual manner and pH was calculated by the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation. Equilibration was carried out at 37”. At Boulder City the pH of arterial blood at 37” was determined dire&ly by the glass electrode and T40 was calculated by use of data given by Peters and Van Slyke (5). Values for pH, determined at 37” on the glass electrode, and of arterial COz, determined on the Van Slyke apparatus, are applied to the line chart of Fig. 96 (p. 907 (5)). The slight degree of unsaturation of arterial blood is neglected and the factor f is read off the chart. This multiplied by whole blood CO2 gives plasma COz. The next step consists in calculating the pCOz of arterial blood from the plasma Cog, derivkd above, and the pH. Formula 5 of Table 57 (p. 881 (5)) may be used. Finally blood COz at pCOz = 40 mm. of Hg may be estimated from the observed arterial COz and from the calculated pCOz on the assumption that in normal blood the slope of the CO? dissocia- tion curve is 0.24 mM of CO2 per mm. of pCO,, a relation implicit in Equation 26 (p. 912 (5)). In cases where the correction of blood CO2 to a pCOz of 40 mm. exceeds 1 mM we employ the line chart of Henderson, Bock, Dill, and Edwards (6). With t,his chart, if the Hb and any pair of values of pCOz and CO? in oxyge- nated blood are known, it is possible to derive any other pair of values of the latter variables; e.g., CO2 when pCOz = 40 mm. of Hg which is Tdo.

Results

Fig. 1 shows the values of pH in a group of 106 men in Boston (chiefly Harvard students) studied throughout the year and in two

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452 Effect of Climate and Season on Blood

groups studied in Benoit, Mississippi. Corresponding values for arterial COz are found in Fig. 2. Despite the wide range of temperatures, there is no clear evidence of a dependence of these properties of the blood on the season. The trends of total COz, alkaline reserve, pCOz, and pH with temperature were calculated

35 I I I I

I- HARVARD STUbENTS .

BOSTON -: I ,. ; 25 - I I-

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. . . w I5 . . 1 .

. ”

I- COLORED SHAkECROPPERS . .

f .

; 30

d

jL1 7.30 7.34 7.30 7.42 7.46

ARTERIAL pHs

FIG. 1. Arterial pH in relation to daily maximum temperature. The line corresponds to the trend of the observations.

for the group of 106 students in Boston and for the 100 observa- tions on five men made by Shock and Hastings in Chicago (3). As appears from Table I, there are slight positive trends with temperature of both arterial COz and TJo in both places. The trends in pCOz and in pH were in opposite directions in both the

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Dill, Wilson, Hall, and Robinson 453

Boston and the Chicago data. If the two sets of data are put together, these opposite trends in pH and pCOz nearly counter- balance and the positive trends in COZ content and capacity are so slight that no convincing evidence is provided for any de- pendence of these functions on external temperature.

35 I / I I I I I HARVAao STUDENTA .

BOSTON

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ARTERIAL C02. uM PER LITER

FIG. 2. Arterial CO* in relation to daily maximum temperature. line corresponds to the trend of the observations.

The

Petersen’s observations on pH of venous blood (2) were made by a calorimetric procedure. Venous blood is ordinarily more acid than arterial blood by about 0.03 pH unit and yet Petersen’s pH values are more alkaline by about 0.05 than our observations on arterial blood. This implies a difference of about 0.08 between

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454 Effect of Climate and Season on Blood

pH as determined by Petersen, on the one hand, and by the Hastings calorimetric method, the equilibration procedure, or the electrometric method, with the glass electrode, on the other. Petersen’s pH data on each of four men during 2 summer months in Chicago are shown in Fig. 3. There is a small but consistent trend in pH for each subject, amount,ing to about +0.0015 pH unit per 1”; for a temperature difference of +20” there is a pH increment of 0.03. This amounts to about the normal difference between arterial and venous blood. If arterial blood remains unaffected by temperature, it would be possible to account for

TABLE I

Trends in Composition of Artekl Blood with Temperature

The trends are calculated by the Pearson formula from the day’s maxi- mum temperature reported by the United States Weather Bureau.

Observers ........................................ Place .................................................

Sho$&&ngs 1

D;l;t;;Z . No. of subjects,. ..................................... 106

“ “ observatmns ................................... / lo! 106

,Mean of maximum Gnperatures, “C. .. “ total COZ, mM per 1 ...........

AC&/At. ........................

Mean T40, * mxperl.... ............. AT,a/At ............................

Mean pCO,, mm. Hg. .............. ApCOz/At, .........................

Mean pH, .......................... ApH,/At .............................

21.7 +0.02

21.3 +0.01

41.2 -to.09

7.395 -0.0005

10 22.2

f0.01 21.5

f0.02 43.4

-0.04 7.381

+O.OOOS

* T40 or alkaline reserve is defined as the CO1 content of oxygena,ted blood equilibrated at 37” at pCOz = 40 mm. of Hg.

this great a change in venous pH by assuming that skin circulation increases so much in high temperatures that venous blood draining the skin capillaries remains virtually arterialized.

We have made similar measurements on members of our party in Boston and in summer expeditions t,o the desert and to t.he humid heat of Mississippi. The values of pH and of arterial CO2 in desert heat are shown in relation to daily maximum temperature in Fig. 3. Two of the men, Adolph and Dill, are in a separate class in so far as arterial CO, content is concerned. Eleven observa- tions on .4dolph and Dill range from 21.9 to 25.0 mM per liter,

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Dill, Wilson, Hall, and Robinson

while twenty-two observations on the other five men range from 19.4 to 22.0 mM. A similar difference was observed in winter, and hence we have here individual idiosyncrasies that persist despite changes in climate and season. Aside from this feature,

40

35

25

SUBJECT I

r - .IO

I

SUBJECT 3

SUBJECT 2 r 1.33

SUBJECT 4

7.35 740 1.45 750 7.55

VENOUS ,aHS

FIG. 3. Venous pH, in four subjects studied by Petersen (2) in Chicago. T is Pearson’s coefficient of correlation.

the only other comment to be made on Fig. 3 is that there is no clear relation between the fluctuations in daily maximum tem- perature and these properties of blood.

No racial difference was found in respect to the mean values of

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456 Effect of Climate and Season on Blood

arterial CO2 and pH. This is evident not only from Figs. 1 and 2 but also from Table II; the mean values for these two functions in two groups of Negroes lie within the limits set by groups of white subjects with one exception.

The foregoing observations give no indication that two selected properties of the blood vary with season, but they do not disprove the contention of Petersen that there are day-to-day fluctuations in these properties that depend on the passage of storm fronts. If there is such a dependence, variability in the properties of blood

TEMR-“C.

JUNE JULY

FIG. 4. Arterial CO1 and pH during the summer of 1937 at Boulder City, a separate symbol being used for each of the seven men studied. No consistent difference8 were seen in pH but two men had a higher CO2 content than the others. Neither function varied with the outdoor maximum temperature.

should be maximal in our Boston data and in those of Shock and Hastings (3) in Chicago. These measurements were made in all four seasons and in climates notable for instability. The least variability should be found in our measurements in Benoit where the summer weather is notable for its uniformity. During our stay at Benoit the barometric readings, uncorrected for altitude, averaged 749.2 mm. of Hg, with a standard deviation of 2.6. For a corresponding period in the summer in Boston the values were 763.3 f 3.7 mm. and in the winter 764.1 f 7.9. We have ac-

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Dill, Wilson, Hall, and Robinson 457

cordingly paid particular attention to the variability of pH and arterial CO2 with respect to climate and season.

The possibility also exists that there are racial differences in variability even though the mean values are not significantly different. Negroes are reputed to have a different emotional

TABLE II Arterial pH and CO2 Content (in mM per Liter) in Relation to Climate and

Race

PhCE

Boston Benoit Boston and

Bloomington Benoit

J c .?. L I ’

F 1 I[

PH

Subject8 e 83 *t;$ *poiaial *

“0 sg oaf?

6 da ;gQ

224 Pi Mean 8.~. Mean 8.0.

--- -- --

“C.

Laboratory staff 10 10 O-157.3860.01822.120.84 ‘I L‘ 10 16 3238 7.403 0.026 22.09 1.22

Colored students 12 12 0-157.3900.02022.561.25

Boston Chicago

Colored share crop- 23 23 29-377.3980.02121.89 1.17 pers

Students and faculty 106 106 G-317.381 0.030 22.22 1.00 Shock and Hastings 5100-17-377.3950.03221.651.38

(3)* “ Shock and Hastings 39 104 7.4040.02722.301.20

(7) * ‘I Petersen (2)t 4223 20-367.4560.02728.451.34

* The pH values of Shock and Hastings (3, 7) were determined colori- metrically at 38”. We have introduced a correction of+0.005 to bring them into line with our measurements made at 37”. We have employed only their first observation of each day whenever several were made on the same day.

t Venous blood. The method of Myers and Muntwyler (8) was used for pH determination. We have read off values from the curves given by Petersen ((2) Fig. 76).

make-up than Whites and it is true that emotional make-up can be reflected in the properties of blood obtained by puncturing an artery, or even a finger. While most subjects are little concerned, many show a respiratory response which may take the form of holding the breath in some or of overventilation in others.

We find that the arterial pH does not show consistent differences

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TABL

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Prop

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s of

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cent

8.92

95

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8.68

96

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8.20

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p”?.

21

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21.7

21

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m.

pm

1.

Hcl

22.1

42

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22.1

41

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22.6

42

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pSYi

. 66

.0

63.1

67

.0

8.18

95

.4

21.6

21

.9

40.8

68

.0

8.98

96

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21.8

22

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41.4

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T-

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5 51

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Dill, Wilson, Hall, and Robinson 459

in variability that can bc related to climate or race (Table II). The smallest standard deviation was found in our laboratory staff in Boston; it was considerably greater in the same group in Mississippi. Negroes exhibit,ed t,he same variability in Boston and Bloomington as in Benoit. While the greatest. deviations occurred in the three large bodies of data collected in Bost,on and Chicago, we are not inclined t>o attach great significance to this, particularly since the smallest deviation in arterial CO2 was found in t’he two Boston groups. The only indication in Table II that the races may differ lies in the small st’andard deviation in pH in the two groups of Negroes. However, their arterial CO, is not unusually constant.

Other propert.ies of arterial blood arc summarized in Table TIT. There are only a few points in Table TIT that deserve special mention. The hemoglobin in Segroes is about 8 per cent less than in t,he whit,e subjects, including white share croppers. This we believe to be significant; the data will be presented in more detail elsewhere in connection with morphological studies of the blood. The serum protein in our party wa,s unusually low in Mississippi, although it was within the usual limit,s in other groups there. It therefore appears that, “thin” blood, while not uncommon in the South, is not necessarily a consequence of long residence there. It appears to be a racial characteristic of Negroes t,o have thin blood in the sense of low hemoglobin and it also seems that, in the course of acclimat,ization Whites may undergo a temporary reduction in serum prot,ein concentration. Finally, there are two groups in which serum chloride concentra- tions are below the usual range; these are the northern ?;egroes and the white share croppers. For this we have no explanation.

SUMMARY

The properties of arterial blood do not show a clear cut depend- cnce on climate or season, nor is the standard deviation in pH and arterial 02, observed throughout the year in changeable climates, much greater than during the summer in the uniform humid heat of Mississippi. Blood from superficial veins appears to be more alkaline in hot weather; probably this is partially dependent on increased flow of blood through the skin. Negroes have less hemoglobin than Whites and their arterial pH may be

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460 Effect of Climate and Season on Blood

less variable than that of Whites. There is no other evidence for racial peculiarities in serum electrolytes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Adolph, E. F., Science, 63, 626 (1926). 2. Petersen, W. F., The patient and the weather, Ann Arbor, 1, pt. 2 (1936). 3. Shock, N. W., and Hastings, A. B., J. Biol. Chem., 112, 239 (193536). 4. Thompson, J. W., Corwin, W., and Aste-Salazar, J. H., Nature, 140,

1062 (1937). 5. Peters, J. P., and Van Slyke, D. D., Quantitative clinical chemistry,

Interpretations, Baltimore (1931). 6. Henderson, L. J., Bock, A. V., Dill, D. B., and Edwards, H. T., J. Biol.

Chem., 67, 181 (1930). 7. Shock, N. W., and Hastings, A. B., J. Biol. Chem., 104, 585 (1934). 8. Myers, V. C., and Muntwyler, E., J. Biol. Chem., 76, 243 (1928).

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F. ConsolazioRobinson and With the technical assistance of

D. B. Dill, J. W. Wilson, F. G. Hall, SidTO CLIMATE AND SEASON

NEGROES AND WHITES IN RELATION PROPERTIES OF THE BLOOD OF

1940, 136:449-460.J. Biol. Chem. 

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