ABSTRACT
One of the primary attributes of the internal medium of any organism is that it should maintain its normal hydrogen-ion concentration within certain rather narrow limits. Throughout life and, for different reasons, even after death, there is a continuous tendency for this pH to be depressed on account of the liberation into the blood of certain predominantly acidic metabolites, together with respiratory carbon dioxide. Although insects appear to support a wider range of pH change than do mammals, if their blood were insufficiently well buffered, its reaction would soon become outside the limits compatible with life.
Copyright © 1950 The Company of Biologists Ltd.
1950
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