RES JUDICATA 



RESPIRATION 



659 



in a semi-fluid state from several species of pine, 

 especially Pinus tceda, P. mitis, P. paiustris, and 

 P. rigida of North America, P. pinaster, P. pinea, 

 and P. Laricio of southern Europe, and P. sylves- 

 tris of northern Europe. The crude article, con- 

 sisting of tuipentine and resiu proper, is subjected 

 to distillation, when the resin alone remains behind. 

 The resin thus procured is used very extensively in 

 the manufacture of common yellow soap, also for 

 sizing paper and various other purposes, includ- 

 ing the preparation of ointments and plasters in 

 pharmacy. 



The other resins most generally known and used 

 in Europe, and here all treated in separate articles, 

 are Auime, Copal, Dammar, Mastic, Sandarach, 

 Frankincense, Lac, and Kauri Gum. 



Res Jndicata, in Law, means that the subject- 

 matter of an action has been already decided by 

 a court of competent jurisdiction. A matter so 

 decided cannot again be made a ground of action, 

 as between the same parties. 



Resolution, in Music, the relieving of a discord 

 by a following concord ; see HARMONY. For the 

 Resolution of Forces, see COMPOSITION. 



Resorcin. See DYEING, Vol. IV. p. 141. 



Respiration, or BREATHING, is a part of the 

 life of all organisms, animal and vegetable. It is 

 a series of chemical changes, the first of which ig 

 the alworption of oxygen into the lx>dy, and the 

 last of wliieb is the excretion of carbonic acid. 

 The association of this intake of oxygen and 

 excretion of carbonic acid with the same organs, 

 the lungs, is due to the fact that both the food- 

 stuff ami the waste-stuff are gases, and not to any 

 immediate connection between them. Necessarily 

 any organ adapted to the diffusion of a gas from 

 the air into the blood must also be adapted for 

 the diffusion of a gas from the blood into the air ; 

 that is, supposing that the living membrane, of 

 which the lung essentially consists, which separates 

 the air from the bl(x>d, acts, so far as the diffusion 

 of X:ISCH is concerned, as a dead membrane ; even 

 if it has any effect arising from the fact of its 

 being a living membrane it is probable that it will 

 behave in a similar way to both the ingoing and 

 outgoing gases. We shall first describe the process 

 as it occurs in man and other Mammalia, and then 

 give a sketch of comparative respiration, the various 

 methods adopted in other types of animals for 

 effecting the same purpose. The respiration of 

 plants is dealt with in the article on VEGETABLE 

 PHYSIOLOGY. For the general relation of the 

 function of respiration to the other bodily func- 

 tions, see PHYSIOLOGY. 



In all animals in which the parts of the body are 

 nourished by the circulation of a stream of food 

 material, the blood, there must always be two 

 ili-tiii<-t seta of processes to consider: (1) the 

 maintenance of the blood in a normal state, by 

 the supply of fresh food-matter from time to time, 

 and by the elimination of waste-matter ; (2) the 

 nutrition of the individual tissues and cells of the 

 body by the blood-stream (see CIRCULATION). 

 Applying this to the function of respiration, we 

 shal 1 have to consider ( 1 ) the manner in which 

 oxygen is supplied to the blood and carbonic acid 

 gas removed from it; (2) the manner in which 

 the cells are able to take oxygen out of the 

 blood and cast into it their useless carbonic acid ; 

 also the changes that take place within the cells 

 between the intake of the or.ygen and the output 

 of the carlionic acid. These two sets of processes 

 are usually described as t lui outer and the inner, 

 if.-, respiration. Some writers include in 

 the term outer respiration the absorption of oxy- 

 gen by the cells from the blood, and the excre- 

 tion of carbonic acid into the blood, and restrict 



the term inner respiration to the actual changes 

 that take place within the cells. It is evident 

 that outer respiration corresponds to the processes 

 of digestion and absorption to which food materials 

 other than gaseous are subjected. It must be 

 evident, too, that the mass of our present informa- 

 tion refers to outer respiration ; tne changes that 

 take place within the cells, of which inner respira- 

 tion is a part, are" the whole mystery of the objec- 

 tive side of life. 



OUTER RESPIRATION. In all animals which 

 possess a blood-stream the outer respiration is 

 carried on by the simple diffusion of oxygen into 

 and of carbonic acid out of the blood through a 

 thin membrane from and into the air or water in 

 which the creature lives. As already noted, it i.- 

 possible that the fact of this membrane being a 

 living one may in some ways modify the other- 

 wise simple processes of diffusion. The essential 

 structure, therefore, of all breathing organs, lungs, 

 gills, or tracheae, must 1x3 the same : a thin mem- 

 brane exposed on the one side to the oxygen con- 

 taining medium, air or water, in which the animal 

 lives, on the other side to the blood flowing in a 

 network of thin-walled vessels, so that the gases 

 that have to pass in and out of the blood are only 

 separated from the air or water from which and 

 into which they have to pass by thin partitions 

 by the membranous wall of the breathing organ, 

 and by the thin wall of the blood-vessels. Animals 

 such as the frog, which have thin skins, can 

 breathe with i.e. the gases can diffuse through 

 the whole surface of their bodies if the under skin 

 is well supplied with blood-vessels. A frog for 

 this reason can live for days, without its lungs, 

 but if its skin be rendered impervious to gases 

 will die very quickly, even with the lungs intact. 

 But, as all the Mammalia have thick skins, this 

 method of breathing must Ite reduced to a mini- 

 mum, if indeed it exists at all. 



In outer respiration we have two things to con- 

 sider : (1) The manner in which fresh supplies of 

 oxygen are pumped into the lungs, wnile the 

 poisonous carlionic acid gas is pumped out. This 

 may be called the mechanics of respiration. (2) 

 The manner in which oxygen passes from the air 

 in the lungs into the blood, and is held in the 

 blood, and the manner in which the carbonic acid 

 in the blood passes out of the Mood into the air- 

 chambers of the lungs. This may be called the 

 chemistry of respiration. 



Structure of Respiratory Mechanism. This mech- 

 anism consists of the lungs, a series of minute 

 air-chambers with a network of capillaries in the 

 walls, the air-passages from the air-chamlxjrs of 

 the lungs to tne outer air, and the chest-walls 

 with their muscles, which act like bellows and 

 change the air in the lungs. The essentials of 

 structure that a lung must possess have already 

 been emphasised. The simplest lung that we can 

 imagine would be an elastic membranous bag, 

 well supplied with blood-vessels, and with a pipe 

 connecting it with the air ; the most complicated 

 that exist are essentially of that construction, the 

 complications that occur having for their object 

 merely the enlarging of the surface exposed to the 

 air. Let us begin with the air-passages. There 

 are first the nose and mouth ; these join the upper 

 part of the gullet, known as the pharynx (see 

 illustration at DIGESTION). From the pharynx 

 arises the windpipe (trachea) ; this passes through 

 the voice-box (larynx) into the chest-cavity ; there 

 it divides into two passages (the bronchi); tlie 

 bronchi go on dividing again and again, generally 

 into two ; the ultimate divisions (the bronchioles) 

 open into clusters of air-chambers. The air- 

 chamlxirs are about liisth inch in diameter. It 

 has been estimated that there are some 725 million* 



