Compressed Air; 2 Poisoning 753 



Experiment CCCXVII. April 2. Similar eels. 



A: these are the same ones as A of the preceding experiment. 



B: at 3 o'clock, 5 are placed in the apparatus at 5% atmospheres 

 of air with 57.5% of oxygen. The tension is therefore 316, correspond- 

 ing to 15 atmospheres of air. 



April 3, 10 o'clock in the morning; A, very lively; when quiet, 

 respiratory rate 78 and pulse 40. 



B: move when the apparatus is shaken, but not spontaneously. 

 Pulse 20 at the most; respirations, when eels are quiet, are not visible; 

 after they were shaken, I counted 22. From time to time, violent 

 struggling. 



6 o'clock in the evening; in convulsions and are twisted in the 

 shape of an 8. 



April 4, 1 o'clock. B: all dead, opaque. 



Experiment CCCXVIII. April 4. Similar eels. 



A: These are the eels of the two preceding experiments. 



B: at 4 o'clock, 5 are placed under pressure of 10 atmospheres 

 of air. 



April 5, 9 o'clock in the morning: A: very lively, 66 very ample 

 respirations; pulse 26. 



B: at the bottom of the apparatus, hardly moving; respirations 

 invisible; pulse 20. 



April 7. Same, all living; rapid decompression. 



Experiment CCCXIX. July 8. Eels, not transparent. 



At 5 o'clock in the evening, under compression of 10 atmospheres 

 of air containing 50% of oxygen; the apparatus is shaken to saturate 

 the water containing the eels. 



July 9, 1 o'clock; all dead, opaque. 



I tip the apparatus so that not the air but the water will escape; 

 this water, when collected in the syringe, froths, and is taken to the 

 mercury pump. 



It contains 14 volumes of oxygen per 100 volumes of liquid, and 

 the same quantity of nitrogen. 



Much weaker pressures are enough to kill aquatic animals 

 when their action is continued long enough. 



Experiment CCCXX. May 20. Frog tadpoles, several days out of 

 the egg and in very good condition in the laboratory. 



A: 5 in a little corked flask, with water, at normal pressure. 



B: 5 in a flask with water, all in the glass compression apparatus, 

 at 7 atmospheres of air. 



May 22: all living. 



May 24: all living in A, all dead in B, probably since the day 

 before. 



Experiment CCCXXI. May 24. Same experiment, with similar 

 animals; 7 atmospheres of air. 



May 27; all the tadpoles in the compressed air are dead. 



So aquatic animals are killed like air-breathing animals, when 



