THE COMPOSITION OF EXPIRED AIR, 



alive, while that in tiie cage before it was the first to die. They concludeil from 

 these facts, that the death of the animals was produced by a volatile poison, which 

 poison is absorbed by tiie HgSO^, which thus saves the life of the animal in the last 



cage. 



They stated (22) that any alkali used to absorb carbonic acid fi-om expired air 

 would also change the oi-ganic poison, ;ind pi-oposed an apparatus by means of 

 which the oi-ganic poison should l)e svipplied to the fresh air entering the jai-s by 

 volatilizing it from fluid condensed from the exjtired air. 



Von Ilofmann-Wellenhof, in 1888, (23), found that when he injected large quan- 

 tities of the condensed fluid of respiration at 12 ° C, instead of at 37 " C— intravenous 

 injection, — a reseml)lance of the results obtained by Brown-Sequard and d'Arsonval 

 was produced. Under such cii'cumstances he observed muscle weakness, slowing 

 of respiration, fall of temperature, and dilatation of the pupils, though the animals 

 remained alive. He injected K) rabbits with G to 30 c. c. of the Huid warmed to 

 the body temperatui-e, all the results being negative. Thiee other animals wei-e in- 

 jected in the jugular vein — one receiving 28 c. c. of the fluid, another 25 c. c. 

 of distilled water, and a thinl 50 c. c. of distilled water. There was no 

 difference in the symptoms noted in the animals. lie noticed symptoms of depres- 

 sion only after injecting 50 c. c, or more, of the fluid. In a .series of 17 experiments 

 with inoculations of from 30 to 50 c. c. each of the fluid, in 12 there appeared 

 ln«mo"lubinuria: 6 of these died. As the result of his experiments, he concluded 

 that the existence of a volatile poison in the expired air of healthy human beings 

 lias not l)een demonstrated by his experiments; this being a direct contradiction of 

 the results of Brown-Sequard and d'Arsonval, as weie also those of Dastre and 

 Loye. 



Uffelmann, in 1888, (24), found that there was a perceptible increase in organic 

 matter in the atmosphere of a sleeping-room occupied by several persons for some 

 hours, increasing in amount with the length of time the room was occupied. 



Lehmann and Jessen, in 1890, (25), collected 15-20c. c. of condensed fluid per 

 hour from the breath of a person exhaling through a glass spiral laid in ice. The fluid 

 was always clear as Avater, odorless, and of neutral reaction. Nessler's reagent showed 

 tlic presence of ammonia constantly, with good teeth but little, sometimes merely 

 a trace, with bad teetli. more, though never more than 10 mg. of NH^Cl in one litre. 

 Traces of IICl were also constantly found. A small sediment remained on evapora- 

 tion, ranging from 39 to 86.4 mg. per litre of fluid. This they believed to originate 

 from the glass vessel ; being pi'o])ably calcium oxalate. They tested its reducing 

 power upon solution of permanganate of potash, making two control determination.s. 

 The first determination showed 3.6 mg. of O for the oxidation of 1 L. ; the second, 



I 



