112 



of air, were felt in a still greater degree by Mr Kite ; 

 for on respiring 591 cubic inches of atmospheric air 

 from and into a bladder, he experienced, in one mi- 

 nute, great anxiety at the breast, which in half a 

 minute more became intolerable : his face swelled, 

 became black, and felt excessively hot, and sparks 

 of fire danced before him : loss of sight, giddiness 

 and confusion of the senses succeeded, and at the 

 end of little more than two minutes, he fell back 

 into a chair. He was relieved by fresh air, but 

 remained confused and giddy *. The amount of 

 the diminution of respired air, says Professor Pfaff, 

 depends not only on the time during which a given 

 volume of air is respired, but principally on the 

 magnitude of the volume of air itself : it must be 

 proportionally less the greater the quantity inspired. 

 He breathed 144 cubic inches of air once only in 

 the time of ten or twelve seconds, and the diminu- 

 tion was four cubic inches, or i of the primitive vo- 

 lume : when he respired the same volume of air 

 twice, during twenty seconds, it lost eight cubic 

 inches, or ^ : and when it was thrice respired, du- 

 ring thirty seconds, the diminution amounted to 

 twelve cubic inches, or ~ of the primitive volume f. 

 Now, in all these cases, the volume of air respired 

 was precisely the same, and could not, therefore, 

 affect the ratio of diminution : but as the times were 

 doubled and tripled, so nearly were the degrees of 

 diminution. But the more frequently the same air 



* Essay on Apparent Death, p. 25. 

 f Nicholson's Journal, December 1805. 



