Communications

Abstract

In order to understand the overall process of oxygenation within the lung or gill, it is necessary to measure the reaction velocity between oxygen and the red blood cell in situ. For this purpose Mochizuki, Tazawa & Ono (1974) developed a microphotometric technique which is most conveniently applied to gas exchange surfaces such as the chorioallantoic surface of the chick and the secondary gill lamella of fish. Gas mixtures were introduced into a moist chamber containing the secondary lamellae. The time course of the reaction recorded (Fig. 1) therefore includes the properties of the resistance to gas transfer across the gill membrane, plasma layer, and red cell membranes in addition to the reaction velocity between the oxygen and haemoglobin within the corpuscle.The time course of the oxygenation and deoxygenation of both carp and eel red blood corpuscles clearly show that deoxygenation takes place much more slowly than does the oxygenation process. Both processes 82P