MOTION OF THE HEART AND BLOOD 



superficial, are distended at the same time and with 

 equal speed, how is it possible for the air to pene- 

 trate as easily and quickly through the skin, flesh, 

 and bulk of the body to the deeper parts as through 

 the skin alone? How may the arteries of the 

 fetus draw air into their cavities through the mother's 

 abdomen and the uterine mass? How may seals, 

 whales, dolphins, other species of cetaceans, and 

 all kinds of fish in the depths of the sea draw in and 

 give off air through the great mass of water by the 

 pulsing systole and diastole of their arteries? To 

 say that they absorb air fixed in the water and give 

 off their waste vapors to the water is pure fiction. ^ 

 If the arteries during systole exhale waste vapors 

 from their cavities through the pores of the flesh and 

 skin, why not at the same time the spirits said to 

 be contained within them, for spirits are much more 

 volatile than sooty wastes. Again, if the arteries 

 receive and pour out air in diastole and systole, as 

 the lungs in respiration, why not the same if cut 

 open as in arteriotomy? In cutting open the trachea 

 it is clear that the air goes in and comes out of the 



2 Of course this is just what they do. The fundamental facts about 

 respiration were established by A-L. Lavoisier (Hist. Acad. roy. d. 

 Sci., Paris, 1784, p. 355) and, for internal respiration, by G. Magnus 

 (Ann. Phys. u. Chem., 1837, 4i: 583)- The fundamental laws about 

 gaseous behavior were being developed about 1660 by Robert Boyle 

 (1627-1691), but I have not been able to find who first showed the 

 solubility of air in water. The laws governing these phenomena were 

 studied by Henry in 1803 and by Dalton in 1807. Humboldt and 

 Provencal first studied the respiration of fishes (Mem. Soc. phys. chim. 

 d'Arcueil, Paris, 1807, 2: 359). 



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