1895.] on Influence of Science on Mountaineering. 459 



loss of power is, as far as can be judged from what is at present 

 known, though a formidable obstacle and one not generally recognised, 

 not insuperable. Possibly medical means may be discovered to 

 combat the condition. Oxygen as a remedy has failed: other 

 remedies may be found. Certain drugs recently introduced produce 

 effects not unlike those which result from diminished pressure — a 

 significant fact. One curious effect of diminished atmospheric 

 pressure has been noted, and has been held to compensate for the 

 diminution in the amounts of oxygen, a diminution that as Professor 

 Eoy has suggested must be increased on the mountain side when 

 there is any melting of snow, inasmuch as water will absorb oxygen 

 more readily than nitrogen from the air. If any stay is made at an 

 elevation of some 13,000 feet, as Viault has shown, there is an 

 enormous increase in the number of the red blood corpuscles, that is 

 to say, an enormous increase in the area of the surface concerned with 

 the absorption of oxygen. At the sea level the ratio of the body 

 surface to the blood surface is as 1 to 2560; while at a pressure 

 corresponding to 13,000 feet the blood corpuscles so increase in 

 number as the ratio of the body surface to that of the corpuscles has 

 altered to 1 to 4293. Putting the matter in another way, the actual 

 corpuscle surface at sea level = 3840 square metres; at 13,000 (after 

 11 days) = 6144 square metres. But though the increase of the 

 corpuscles may begin at once, the multiplication is a slow process. 

 The maximum is perhaps reached in three to four days. 



[C. T. D.] 



