Theories and Experiments 269 



It is for the reader to decide whether, after such a surprising 

 argument, one should jeer, as Coindet did, at the "competency" of 

 the man who very courteously criticized his mistake. At any rate, 

 we can now easily evaluate the following conclusions, which he 

 boldly 10 ° formulated: 



4. The average of the carbonic acid expired on Anahuac, with 

 diet and conditions equal, is not lower than at sea level. 



6. The quantity of oxygen circulating in the blood is the same at 

 high elevations as at sea level; and with similar and equally satis- 

 factory hygienic conditions, the efficacy of hematosis is the same also. 



17. Under ordinary conditions, residence in Anahuac does not 

 seem to lessen permanently and injuriously the total of the gases 

 which circulate in the human body. 



As for me, I do not hesitate to say that in the work of Coindet 

 nothing justifies this last conclusion, and everything in it contra- 

 dicts the first two. To tell the whole truth, I confess that I can- 

 not accept as accurate even the analyses which are the foundation 

 of them; there must be some mistake in the experimental method 

 or in its application. I shall merely say that the quantity of air 

 upon which the analysis was based was much too small; M. Murfi 

 had the respiratory movements carried on in his apparatus for a 

 half -minute ; Andral and Gavarret had them continued from 8 to 13 

 minutes. Furthermore, no one took care to collect the air which 

 passed through the nostrils. However disposed I am to think that 

 in Anahuac the intensity of the organic combustions is really les- 

 sened, I refuse to believe that it is one-half less, as would be 

 demonstrated if we considered as accurate the figures furnished 

 by the work of Coindet himself. To sum it up, from the point of 

 view of the chemical phenomena of respiration, there is absolutely 

 nothing left of this work. 



One of the surgeons of the Mexican expedition, M. Cavaroz, 107 

 shortly afterwards published a memoir, the observations and con- 

 clusions of which are exactly like what M. Jourdanet had already 

 said. 



He first made a great many measurements on French soldiers 

 and found that at an altitude of 1712 meters the general average 

 of respirations was 19% and the pulse rate 65 %•: 



He first draws this conclusion that: on the lofty plateaux of 

 Anahuac, there is established in the European a supplementary 

 respiration, intended to compensate by the number of respiratory 

 movements for the loss of oxygen for hematosis resulting from the 

 rarefaction of the atmosphere .... 



