Other signs must be used as a check on the blood examination for the establishment of the existence of anaemia.

For instance, many cases here recorded had full normal or even supra-normal corpuscle-count, with a good percentage of haemoglobin.

Yet they presented every external sign of poverty of blood: pallor of skin and, more important still, of mucous membranes, cold extremities, anorexia, indigestion, dyspnoea on trifling exertion.

In such cases we must suppose either that the total volume of the blood is reduced, or that the usefulness of the corpuscles is in some way impaired, or that both these troubles exist together."[23] I have said above that the face was not touched in the course of the rubbing.

There are cases, however, in which massage of the head and face may be usefully practised.