Increased Pressure 1035 



Perhaps, however, I shall be pardoned for noting that while the 

 three enemies of life as we know it today were, in the first geo- 

 logical ages, heat, oxygen tension, and carbonic acid tension, the 

 beings which are the most resistant to this triple and fatal influence 

 belong to the group of vibrios. It is also they which remain active 

 longest in rarefied air. Probably it is in them that life first ap- 

 peared, and it is in them that it will end on the surface of our 

 planet. 



I Observations sur le scjour dans I' air comprime et dans different* gaa deletcrcs. Journal de 

 Robin, Vol. I, p. 452-470. L875. ,..,.. r , L -xj. * 



3 Svgdomsformer ho s Arbejdeme red Fastbroanlaegett over Limfjorden Ugeskrtft for 

 Laeger. Kjobenhavn, Nov. 25, 1876, p. 377-386. 



3 Ucber die Sauerstoffaufnaliine in die Lungen bei geivohnhchcm und erhohtem Luftdrucl;. 

 Pfliigers Archiv., Bd. X, o. 479-536, 1875. 



4 See Pfliiger's Archiv., Bd. IX, taf. VII, a: 1874. 



5 Aerotherapie. Giessen, 1876. , 



6 The recent researches of M. Pasteur and myself en the virulent agent of carbuncled 

 diseases (charbon or anthrax) seem to indicate an exception to this general rule. The repro- 

 ductive corpuscles of certain vibrios which, as I have shown, retain their vitality for several 

 months in dilute alcohol, really resist oxygen tensions which kill the vibrios themselves. But 

 we should know whether it is not simply a question of amount in the tension, or of the duration 

 of the experiment. I am investigating this question, to which T cannot yet give an answer. (See 

 the Comptcs rendus de VAcadcmie des sciences. Sessions of May 21, July 9, July 30, 1877.) 



7 See Pasteur, Etudes sur la bierc, p. 293. Paris, 1876. 



8 Priestly, Experiments and Observations on Air, etc. Translated by Gibelm, Vol. 11, p. 



9 For the history of the question see Demarquay: Essai de pnenmatologie medicale; Paris. 

 1866. See also the interesting pamphlet of Dr. Andrew Smith: Oxygen Gas as a Remedy in 

 Disease; New York, 1870. _ . 



10 La chimie pneumatique appliquee aux travaux sous lean. Paris, 1S08. 



II See Constantin Paul, De I'cmploi de foxygene en tlierapcutique, (Bull. gen. de therap., 

 Aug. 15, 1S68, observ. I and III) and Limousin, Note sur le traitement de I asphyxic par le gas 

 oxvgenc; Bull, des travaux de la Soc. de med. pratique de Paris, 1871. 



u See Linas and Limousin, Asphyxic par le charbon; traitement et guenson par Voxygene. 

 Societe de therapeutique ; July 17, 1868. 



13 See C. Vogt, L' origine de /' hommc. Revue saentifiquc, number of May 12, 1877. 

 page 1090. 



" See Wyville Thomson, Les abimes de la mer. Translated by Lortet. Paris, 1S75, page 27. 



15 Recherches experimentales sur les fonctious de la vessie natatoire. Bihlioth. de VEcolc des 

 hautes etudes. Vol. XV, 1876. 



16 In W. Thompson, Les abimes, etc. Appendix. 



