The disease syndrome of chronic hemolytic anemia associated with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria was described as a separate entity in 1928 and 1931 by Marchiafava1 and in 1931 by Micheli.2 The clinical manifestations have been reviewed recently with the report of cases by Witts3 and by Hamburger and Bernstein.4 The pathologic observations in 2 cases, with a review of the literature, were reported in 1938 by Scott, Robb-Smith and Scowen.5 Van den Bergh6 in 1911 made important observations on the in vitro manifestations of this disease without distinguishing it from acholuric hemolytic jaundice. A preliminary report on the mechanism of hemolysis was published in 1937 by Ham;7 these observations were confirmed in 1938 by Dacie, Israëls and Wilkinson.8 Jordan9 in 1938 published independent observations on the hemolytic mechanism.
The present communication deals with the relation of the acid-base equilibrium of blood to hemolysis in vivo and in vitro and with observations