Compressed Air; 2 Poisoning 737 



I have sometimes seen them occur at pressures hardly over 10 

 atmospheres of air, and even result in death. Here, for example, 

 are three experiments. 



Experiment CCXCVUI. April 26. A rabbit and two sparrows are 

 placed in the large compressed air receiver. 



From 1:45 to 2:45, the pressure is raised to 10 atmospheres. 



About 5 o'clock, on looking through the windows of the apparatus, 

 we see the animals are dead. 



Experiment CCXCIX. April 30. Dog weighing 4.300 kilos. At 

 9:45, placed, free, in the large receiver. 



The pressure is raised to 10 atmospheres at 10:30; then the little 

 exhaust cock is opened, so that a current of air under 10 atmospheres 

 is maintained; the pressure even rises to 11 atmospheres at 10:45; at 

 that time we look in through the portholes and see the dog lying on 

 its back, in a kind of convulsion. The pressure is lowered to 10, 

 and almost immediately the animal recovers, stands up on his feet, 

 and barks wildly. 



At noon, the pressure is still 10 atmospheres; the dog has remained 

 standing and begins to bark furiously when anyone approaches the 

 apparatus. 



The current of air under pressure is maintained. 



At 2: 15, the animal is lying down, struggling half convulsively. 



It dies at 5 o'clock; as the cock has been closed for some time, a 

 sample of air is taken which appears practically pure (O. 19.8; C0 2 

 0.4). 



Experiment CCC. February 15. Two mountain sparrows are kept, 

 from 11:30 to 5:30, under a pressure of air varying from 8 x /2 to 9V2 

 atmospheres; constant current of air. 



One of them (A), at the end of a stay of several hours, gives 

 increasing signs of discomfort. 



Very slow decompression. A is much weakened, has convulsive 

 movements of the wings, feet, and tail; its temperature, which was 41° 

 at the beginning, is only 33.8°. At 7 o'clock in the evening, it still 

 has convulsive movements, leans backward on its tail. 



The other sparrow seems quite well. Its temperature is 39°. 



Both die during the night. 



I do not dwell on these last experiments. To return to those 

 summarized in Table XV, we see that though for compressions 

 of short duration convulsions begin to appear with an oxygen 

 tension a little lower than the value of 19 atmospheres of air, 

 they are strong and constant above 20 atmospheres, and always 

 entail a very rapid death when above 27 atmospheres. In the only 

 experiment (Experiment CCLXXXIII) in which the oxygen ten- 

 sion rose to the value of 35 atmospheres, the animal was already 

 dead when taken from the apparatus. 



Let us consider now the oxygen content of the arterial blood, 



