The call for oxygen by the heart 



81 



Dixon and myself (5) : it was a simple investigation into the question 

 we are discussing, namely whether the oxygen consumption and the 

 carbonic acid production of the heart varied with the functional 

 activity. I call it the pioneer work because in the light of the 

 beautiful researches which have since been performed on the subject 

 by Rohde (6) and his colleagues in Heidelberg and by Evans (7) at 

 University College, London, it seems now as I read it over but " poor 

 stuff" ; nevertheless, I remember, we were not a little proud of it at 

 the time it was done, for to tell the truth it tested our powers to the 

 uttermost and I can only claim for it what Dr Johnson claimed for 

 the preaching of women, "Sir a woman's preaching is like a dog's 

 walking on its hind legs, it is not well done but you are surprised to 

 find it done at all." However it did prove the point at issue in a 

 primitive sort of way. Since many of the methods of altering the 

 functional activity which we chose have not been tested in the more 

 finished work of our successors and as the points which we raised 

 are those which have been elaborated by them, it forms a suitable 

 introduction to the later work. 



The first point about the work in which it falls short of the ideal is 

 that it is not strictly quantitative by which we mean that while the 

 gas measurements were quantitative there were no other records of 

 the changes in activity than the obvious alterations shown by the 

 graphic records of the heart's contraction. There is therefore no 

 means of judging of the relation between the functional activity of 

 the heart and the gaseous exchange, other than a comparison of the 

 figures for the blood gas exchange with the tracing. 



This comparison we therefore proceed to give. 



(a) The first case is that of cardiac augmentation with adrenalin. 



Oxygen used per gram per min. 

 Period I Before adrenalin 

 Period II After adrenalin 



' C ' 





I II 



PIG. 43. Showing two periods, preceding and succeeding injection of adrenalin. 



B. R. F. 6 



