Karl von Vierordt: Innovations in Blood Chemistry

Abstract

Karl von Vierordt (1818—1884), a mid-19th C. physician and physiologist, developed and applied quantitative chemistry techniques to innovate the measurement of the ratio of blood corpuscles in a volume of blood. His determinations, performed using his own blood, stand to the present as accurate representations of the number of red blood cells found in a cubic millimeter of blood. While his methods may seem rudimentary from a presentist historical perspective, he understood that the methods chemists had been employing in other areas of chemistry and quantitation were applicable to the measurement of blood corpuscles.