This study was undertaken with the object of finding out the content of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, inorganic phosphorus and chloride in the blood cells and the serum of schizophrenic patients. Until recent years studies of minerals in the blood of patients with mental disorders have been concerned exclusively with either the serum or the whole blood. In 1938 Chatagnon1 reported on a study of the chloride content of the cells in 7 schizophrenic patients. This was followed by another comprehensive investigation of the same problem by Gross, Gross and Wortis, in 1940.2 To our knowledge there are in the literature no further studies on the anion and cation concentrations in the blood cells of schizophrenic patients.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
Blood was obtained from an antecubital vein of 9 schizophrenic patients before they had had breakfast. The blood was collected over mercury and defibrinated according to the technic of