Blood and Iron

“ Why, in healthy subjects iron is naturally found in the blood, and iron in the bar is strong; ergo, iron is the source of animal invigoration. But you being deficient in vigor, it follows that the cause is deficiency of iron. ”

“ The Office of Iron in the Blood.—Iron exists in the blood in the red corpuscles, and gives them color and the power of absorbing gases. The fact that peroxide of iron is one of the readiest absorbents of gases, and parts with them as readily on exposure in thin layers to the air, so that it can be used over and over again for that work, gives a clew to its special function in the red corpuscles of the blood. It enables them readily to absorb oxygen as they pass along the minute blood-vessels of the lungs, and to carry it to all parts of the body, where they part with it as it is demanded. ”

“ Iron.—This substance is probably the most abundant and widely diffused of the metals. It is found in {57}most of the vegetables, and is a very important component of animal tissues. It enters into the composition of human blood in about one part per thousand. Ordinarily, the food conveys to the system enough iron for its use, but it must sometimes be introduced separately as a remedy, especially after great loss of blood, or after some wasting disease. Under its influence the blood seems to be rapidly restored, and a natural color of the lips and skin replaces the pallor caused by disease. ”

“ Iron, and especially inorganic iron, is indicated as a preventive of old age for the reason that it stimulates to greater activity the blood forming organs, as has been shown by Harnack and von Noorden. It is a fact, upon which we have already insisted, that the organs which control the condition of the bone marrow, the seat of the blood forming mechanism—i.e., the thyroid and the ovaries,—are degenerated in old age. ”

“ Why iron has been regarded as a scarer of demons has been much debated. Natives of India will tell you that it is the material out of which [12] weapons are made, and that an armed man should fear nothing. Others say that its virtues depend on its black colour, which, as we shall see, is obnoxious to evil spirits. Mr. Campbell22 thinks the explanation may be that in all cases of swooning and seizures iron is of great value, either applied in the form of the cautery or used as a lancet to let blood. The real reason is probably a very interesting survival of folk-thought. ”

“ Iron is a metal which is used both as a food and as a medicine and has also a definite local action. Externally, it is not absorbed by the unbroken skin, but when applied to the broken skin, sores, ulcers and mucous surfaces, the ferric salts are powerful astringents, because they coagulate the albuminous fluids in the tissues themselves. The salts of iron quickly cause coagulation of the blood, and the clot plugs the bleeding vessels. ”

“ Without iron, for instance, the blood could not carry oxygen, as it does, from the lungs to the remotest parts of the organism. There are only 48 grains, or one-tenth of an ounce, of iron in the blood; in the whole body there is only sufficient to make four or five tacks—vital tacks, for if you took them away from the body of the strongest man he would drop dead. ”

“ Iron is not a foreign substance to the organism. It is constantly present in the blood, gastric juice, lymph, bile, pigment of the eye and traces of it in the milk and [94] urine. In man there is 1 part of iron to 230 red blood corpuscles, and in cattle 1 to 194 red globules. That it performs a very important part is shown in the rapid construction of red globules when iron is administered in anaemia. ”

“ Runo IX.—The Origin of Iron Argument
Väinämöinen repeats to the old man the legend of the origin of iron (1-266) . The old man reviles the iron and repeats spells for the stopping of blood, and the flow of blood is stayed (267-416) . The old man directs his son to prepare a salve, and dresses and binds up the wound. Väinämöinen is cured, and thanks Jumala for his merciful assistance (417-586) . ”

“ Iron is essential to the human body. It is taken into the body in the form of food, and is excreted from the body in the bile and feces. It has been estimated that typical food contains 10 mgm. of iron daily. The hemoglobin of the blood contains 0.04 per cent. ”

“ Bark will do it, which accounts for the fact that the blood of dogs has a large per centage of iron. Here in New York, the ordinary way of getting iron in the blood is to have a knife run into you by the hand of an assassin ”

“ The blood is dry and brittle, and can often be detached, or a splinter of it, as it were, obtained. The edges of the splinter, if submitted to transmitted light, are observed to be red. Blood upon iron is frequently very intimately adherent; this is specially the case if the stain is upon rusty iron, for hæmatin forms a compound with iron oxide. ”

“ Whether iron is capable of entering the blood in a state of solution, or under a saline form: for, from the violent stimulus, as well as from the dissolution of the blood, and other symptoms brought on by the use of the ore and filings, these substances (not being properly dissolved) appear to have acted in a manner so grossly mechanical, that, whatever Signor Menghini may think, very little is to be concluded from them, with regard to the action of iron on the human body, in such cases, as indicate its use, and where a rational physician would think proper to prescribe it as a medicine. ”

“ Withdraw the iron from the blood as indicated by the pallor of the cheeks, and we become weak, faint and finally die. If the amount of iron in the blood gets too small the disease germs that are always attacking us are no longer destroyed, but multiply without check and conquer us. ”

“ This organic iron, as it is sometimes called, occurs chiefly in the red blood-corpuscles. The patent medicines which are exploited for the iron they contain, are frauds so far as nourishing the body is concerned. The popular deception is caused by the general belief that all compounds containing the same elements are alike in their uses. One might as well swallow iron filings as to endeavor to build red blood corpuscles out of the mineral solution of iron. ”

“ The spirit and oyl of iron may safely be used in the plague, feavers, obstructions, and corruption of blood, from ʒ i. to ℥ i. It is much better to provoke sweat, than that which is made of crude Tartar, without addition of a metal: the like doth that also which is made of copper and more effectually yet, and sometimes causeth a vomit, if it be used in a greater quantity, than is fitting. ”

“ Thus the molecule of the red matter of the blood contains, for each atom of iron, 712 atoms of carbon, 1,130 of hydrogen, 214 of nitrogen, 245 of oxygen, and 2 of sulphur, or 2,303 atoms in all. Existing in compounds of so complex composition, iron can be present only in very small proportions to the whole. Though an essential element, there is comparatively but little of it. The whole body of man does not contain more than one part in twenty thousand of it. ”

“ Campbell, "really was once worshipped by a people with whom iron was rare. Iron is rare, while stone and bronze weapons are common, in British tombs, and the sword of these stories is a personage. It shines, it cries out—the lives of men are bound up in it. ”

“ But no sooner did they reach the entrances to the square than the cannon and musketry roared out, and the silver balls and bullets—for iron was now too precious to use for such purposes—tore their way through their crowded ranks, mowing them down by scores, and then came the thundering charges of the war-beasts, the onslaught of the swift-striking, deep-biting steel, and the end was the same as it had ever been—hundreds slain at the cost of a few wounded men and horses and one or two dead of the iron-clad soldiery of Spain. ”

“ The famed ordeal by red-hot iron, also, has been a palpable swindle in the hands of the authorities. In India and Arabia the test is to lick the iron, which will burn the guilty tongue but not the innocent. ”

“ Their antipathy to the metal furnishes men with a weapon which may be turned against the spirits when occasion serves. As their dislike of iron is supposed to be so great that they will not approach persons and things protected by the obnoxious metal, iron may obviously be employed as a charm for banning ghosts and other dangerous spirits. And often it is so used. Thus in the Highlands of Scotland the great safeguard against the elfin race is iron, or, better yet, steel. The metal in any form, whether as a sword, a knife, a gun-barrel, or what not, is all-powerful for this purpose. ”

“ Iron is used not only in hand to hand fighting, but also to form the winged missiles of war, sometimes for hurling engines, sometimes for lances, sometimes even for arrows. I look upon it as the most deadly fruit of human ingenuity. For to bring Death to men more quickly we have given wings to iron and taught it to fly. ”

“ A small quantity of fire is then placed on the chest of the corpse, which is either buried or thrown into flowing water.109 Here we have the three great demon-scarers,—fire, earth and water, combined. In another device, iron, which has similar virtue, is used. Small round-headed iron spikes, specially made for the purpose, are driven into the nails of the four fingers of the corpse, while the thumbs and great toes are securely fastened together with iron rings. ”

“ Professional aid is not always at our command, and in such a case it would be well to take a poker, or other suitable piece of iron, heat it red hot in the fire, wipe off and destroy the entire surface of the wound. As fast as destroyed, the tissue becomes white. An iron, even at a white heat, gives less pain and at once destroys the vitality of the part with which it comes in contact. ”

“ According to the same author, iron has valuable attributes as a preservative against harmful witchcrafts and sorceries, and may thus be used with advantage both by adults and children. For this purpose it was only necessary to trace a circle about one’s self with a piece of the metal, or thrice to swing a sword around one’s body. ”

“ There were bits of iron which it was hard to imagine any one could possibly need, broken pots, copper basins with holes in them, lanterns, bent and dented, a sewing machine in its late decline, a broken kerosene lamp, half of a knife, rifle triggers, dirty rags from bournouses, a whole pile of greasy, once-red fezes and discarded soldiers' blankets, shoes and coats. ”

“ Plot remarks, "we shall find it very great, if we look back upon the methods of our ancestors, who made iron in foot blasts, or bloomeries, by mens treading the bellows, by which way they they could make but one little Jump or bloom of iron in a day, not 100 weight, leaving as much iron in the slag as they get out. ”

“ But if we could, with reason, suppose, that that metal had brought about their subjugation, then in an age of primitive and imperfect knowledge, and consequent deep superstition, we might not be wrong in supposing that the subjugated race would look upon iron with superstitious dread, and ascribe to it supernatural power inimical to them as a race. They would under such feelings have nothing whatever to do with iron, just as the benighted African, witnessing for the first time the effects of a gun shot, would, with dread, avoid a gun. ”

“ In the Kalevala the hero of the poem wounds himself with an axe. The wound can only be healed by one who knows the mystic words that hold the secret of the birth of iron. Iron is the bane of warlike men ”

“ Looked underneath the forge — at the edge of the bellows.
Already the production (F. birth) of iron had taken place, the
Genus steel had appeared.
(c.)
The genesis of steel is known, the origin of iron is guessed.
Water is the eldest of the brothers, iron the youngest.
Paltry fire the middle one.
Water is the outcome of a mountain, fire's genesis is from the sky,
Iron's origin from iron-ore (F. rust) .
Fire became violent, worked itself into a fury.
Evil fire burnt much land, much land, much swamp,
Burnt sandy fields run wild, burnt sandy heaths. ”

“ I said you were made of iron because you have come out of it all so wonderfully. You were threatened with gas gangrene, and if they had not amputated at once, it would have been the end of you, but instead ... ”

“ That, heated by the bricks, is forced into the furnace.
“One of those great pipes up there is where they draw off the slag. It is so much lighter than the iron that it rises to the top, like cream on milk.
“Down here they draw off the iron. Sometimes they keep it hot for the next process; sometimes it is made into pig iron.”
“What,” asked Dr. Crandon, “becomes of the slag?” ”

“ And as during that union of fire with iron, the iron is incapable of rust or blackness, so is the humanity incapable of sin: and as the operation of fire is attributed to the red‐hot iron (as the iron may be said to heat, burn, and the fire may be said to cut and pierce) , yet the imperfections of the iron do not affect the fire ”

“ But when bronze and iron, diamond point or flaming sword tear their ethereal substance, the pain they feel is more acute than men may suffer, for their flesh is [168] more exquisitely delicate; and should some essential organ be destroyed, they fall inert and, slowly decomposing, are resolved into clouds and during long æons float insensible in the cold ether. And when at length they resume spirit and form they fail to recover full memory of their past life. ”

“ Lepsius [23] has observed that the pictures of the old Empire do not afford an example of arms painted in blue, the metal of weapons being always painted in red or bright brown. Iron was but little used under the old Empire; copper was employed in its stead where the hardness of iron was not indispensable. ”

“ Till quite recently armor plates have been made of wrought iron only, as numerous experiments in England had served to show that notwithstanding the enormous resistance of steel to penetration it was unfit for armor plating,—the damage from the impact of shot not being localized as in wrought iron. ”