92 Chapter VI 



(2) In the natural process of death the same change takes place. 



(3) In the case of hearts treated with drugs, numerous depressing 

 drugs chloral hydrate, atropine, KCN, muscarine and veratrine also 



cause an increase in the ratio ~~ . 



On the other hand, strophanthin, adrenalin and from the 

 physiologist's standpoint most important of all vagus stimulation 



produce their changes without any alteration in the ratio 



The significance of this latter conclusion is very great, from the 

 point of view of the theory of inhibition, for it has been held by 

 Gaskell and others that the essential factor in the anabolic process 

 was a storage of oxygen. 



Now when the vagus is stimulated the absolute quantity of 

 oxygen used goes down, but so does the number of contractions. One 



. Consumption of Oxygen 

 in cmm. 



number of beats 

 Maximal pulse pressure 



f t t t 



Muscarine little much Adrenalin 

 , , A,tropip , 



FIG. 55. 



might express the above theory of inhibition as follows. Relatively 

 to the functional activity of the heart there should be more oxygen 

 taken up during vagus stimulation than at other times ; the experi- 

 ments of Rohde seem to show that this is not so. 



We are tempted to enlarge upon the future that we see before 

 the type of experiment which we have been describing ; this however 

 we will leave to Rohde himself and must now pass to another series 

 of experiments conceived on the same lines. 



The Kidney. Next to the contractile organs which we have just 

 studied, probably the best attested case of functional activity going 

 hand in hand with oxygen consumption is that of the kidney. There is, 

 so far as I know, no case where the kidney does work in which there 

 is not also an increased oxygen consumption by the organ. Now it 

 is necessary here to use the words " does work " in a strictly physical 

 sense, and not in the loose and general way which lends itself to 



