850 Experiments 



is removed, so also is the effect) . But the convulsions due to ex- 

 cessive pressure continue even when the apparent cause has been 

 removed; that is because the real cause, the chemical change, still 

 exists, still operates, and excites the nervous centers. 



Under the influence of oxygen at high tension, within the in- 

 terior of the anatomical elements, either isolated in individual cells 

 or grouped in tissues, chemical alterations take place, which pro- 

 duce lasting substances, the presence of which disturbs the harmony 

 necessary for the continuance of life, in the element first, then in 

 the complex being. 



These are, indeed, rather vague terms, but this vagueness results 

 from the general condition of science and should not be made a 

 reproach against me. What do we know about the molecular 

 transformations which take place regularly in the tissues and in 

 the interior and on the surface of the anatomical elements? The 

 little knowledge we have I have subjected to experimentation; 1 

 have seen that the transformation of starch into glucose, that the 

 reduction of glucose into its primary elements are delayed by 

 oxygen under high tension. Now these are general acts which 

 appear, we know, in the life of a mycoderm cell, as in the cell of a 

 mammal or a bird. They are delayed, but yet the soluble ferment 

 which produces them is not altered at all, and will resume all its 

 activity later, at normal pressure. Why then, after this return to 

 normal pressure, does not life reappear, as after the suspension 

 due to a vacuum or to cold? Can it be that the ferment, whose 

 regular action has diminished, has acquired a new one, which has 

 produced this lasting substance the origin of which we are seeking? 

 Has the fermentable matter, on the contrary, changed so that now 

 it withstands the action of the preserved ferment? 



It is very difficult to answer these questions today. All that I 

 can say is that the substances subjected to compression: meat, eggs, 

 milk, and bread, soon give an acid reaction, due probably in part 

 to lactic acid. It is not impossible that the presence of this acid in 

 the interior of the anatomical elements is the cause of death. 



But without discussing any longer phenomena the inner signifi- 

 cance of which we cannot explain, we are justified by the numer- 

 ous experiments, the report of which has filled so many pages, in 

 saying that, under the influence of oxygen at high tension, within 

 each anatomical element chemical alterations take place which are 

 incompatible with the life of this element. When this is granted, 

 all the varied phenomena which we have enumerated are easily 

 connected and explained. 



