1. In acute asphyxia the total volume of plasma decreases constantly at the rate of over 14, 83 percent.
2. The decrease in the plasma volume by the acute asphyxiation has almost nothing to do with the dehydration of blood.
3. The specific gravity of serum is always raised by acute asphyxia; it rises at the rate of about 0, 3 percent on an average.
4. In acute asphyxia, the dehydration of blood and serum can certainly be found, but contrary to our expectation it is very slight; it is about 0, 6 percent in the serum and about 0, 3 percent in the blood, on an average.
5. In prolonged asphyxia, the water content in blood and serum always increases, contrary to the acute cases, and the dehydration of blood never occurs.
6. In acute asphyxia, the dehydration of blood may play a part in causing the increase in the amount of various blood constituents, but it can not be the main factor. The emigration of various substances into the blood stream from tissues plays the leading rôle in enhancing their percentage in the asphyxial blood.
7. As no dehydration of blood but hydremia always occurs in prolonged asphyxia, the increase in various blood constituents here is entirely due to other causes than the condensation of blood by dehydration.
