588 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



tal result. It would appear that, in an atmosphere of this 

 kind, it is not so much the carbonic acid contained in the 

 blood, as that which accumulates in the tissues, which causes 

 death. When the tissues are treated first by potassa, and 

 then by sulphuric acid, it is shown that the accumulation is 

 considerable in the liver and kidneys, but most in the brain. 

 Carbonic acid abounds in the intestines, and also in the urine 

 and the blood. 8 B, August 17,1872,166. 



EFFECT OF BATHING ON THE WEIGHT OF THE BODY. 



Drs. Jamin and De Laures, in an account of some experi- 

 ments made by them upon the loss of weight experienced by 

 the human body in a bath, remark that, under ordinary con- 

 ditions, a man of good constitution will consume about 4000 

 Grammes of food in the course of a day, of which 1500 

 grammes are excreted, while the remaining 2500 grammes 

 are consumed in the course of twenty-four hours, either by 

 the lungs or by the skin, being a loss of about 100 grammes 

 per hour. This loss, however, is not uniform, as it amounts 

 to about 125 grammes after dinner, diminishing until the fol- 

 lowing morning, when it is only 80 grammes between six 

 and seven o'clock, and increasing again after breakfast. In 

 exercising under a hot sun it sometimes amounts to as much 

 as 340 grammes per hour. 



When the body is immersed in a bath there is a certain 

 temperature at which the weight is maintained unchanged, 

 this, however, increasing when the temperature is lowered, 

 and diminishing very rapidly as the water becomes more 

 and more heated. Before taking the bath 30 grammes may 

 be lost by respiration, and 60 by perspiration ; but during 

 the hour after it the conditions are different : a much less 

 loss w 7 ill take place, and sometimes none at all; indeed, oc- 

 casionally there may "be a slight increase of weight. As, 

 however, the quantity of water exhaled can not be less than 

 before taking the bath and, indeed, should be greater, in 

 consequence of the humidity of the epidermis the diminu- 

 tion or loss of weight, it is thought, can not but be the re- 

 sult of a single cause, namely, a diminution in the amount of 

 carbonic acid expired. But these conclusions are not to be 

 considered as established, and further investigations are to 

 be made by the gentlemen named. 3 B,July 18, 1872, 489. 



