In this pathologic condition, to which von Reckling-hausen gave the name of hemochromatosis, an iron-containing pigment, hemosiderin, is found deposited in various organs and tissues. The real significance of this substance, the chemical nature of which is not yet known, has never been discovered. In fact, the fate of hemosiderin seems still to be so uncertain that it is regarded most frequently merely as a waste disintegration product of the blood pigment, hemoglobin, though by some it has been assumed to play a part or be utilized in the manufacture of new red blood corpuscles.
Hemosiderosis does not manifest itself in any conspicuous way when such quantities of free hemoglobin as must arise in the usual wear and tear or physiologic hemolysis of blood cells find their way into the circulation. At any rate, hemosiderin is not discoverable in the organism by the usual modes of examination except after certain