On a Biologically Important Influence Exercised by the Carbon Dioxide Tension of the Blood on Its Oxygen Binding (English Translation of the 1904 Classic)

Abstract

Abstract This work presents a complete academic translation into English of the classic 1904 paper by Chr. Bohr, K. Hasselbalch, and A. Krogh. In this fundamental study, the authors provided experimental evidence demonstrating that the affinity of hemoglobin for oxygen depends on the partial pressure of carbon dioxide—a phenomenon discovered earlier in 1892 by the Russian physiologist B. F. Verigo and known today as the "Verigo-Bohr effect." Investigating fresh dog blood treated with potassium oxalate, the authors described in detail how an increase in CO₂ tension reduces the oxygen-binding capacity of blood at low oxygen pressures, whereas at 150 mm Hg this depressing influence is completely neutralized.