606 PHYSIOLOGY OF ALPINISM 



metres, and fell into a sleep-like state at 300 millimetres, 

 with the breathing of dyspnceic character. 61 Zuntz and 

 Levenstein observed rabbits die after being kept for several 

 days at a barometric pressure of from 300 to 400 millimetres 

 under a bell-jar ; autopsy showed an enormous fatty degen- 

 eration of the internal organs. 62 



Loss in Alkalescence of the Blood. The loss of alkales- 

 cence of the blood observed by Mosso and his pupils may be 

 regarded as directly related with the oxygen deficiency at 

 high elevations. In animals on Capanna Margherita a loss 

 of 30-40 per cent, of blood alkalinity was observed in estim- 

 ations following the Lowy-Zuntz method ; a slighter loss of 

 alkalinity was noted where an analogous rarefaction of the 

 air was obtained by the air-pump. It is scarcely a mistake to 

 attribute this diminution of alkalescence to a passage of 

 lactic acid into the blood. 63 We know since the investigations 

 of Araki that any kind of oxygen impoverishment in the body 

 leads to an increased formation and eventually, too, to an 

 increased elimination of this acid. 64 In conformity with the 

 present attitude of science we are justified in holding that 

 lactic acid may largely come from destruction of sugar. 

 That in turn an accumulation of acid in the blood, by making 

 demands upon the alkali which is usually combined with 

 carbonic acid, is harmful to the respiratory function of the 

 blood is obvious. This at once suggests >a comparison 

 with the acid intoxication of diabetic coma, although in the 

 latter condition the materia peccans is not lactic acid but 

 -oxybutyric acid. But, as above stated, according to Bar- 

 croft lactic acid facilitates the giving off of oxygen from 

 haemoglobin to the tissues. In view of the connection be- 

 tween lactic acid formation and carbohydrate metabolism 



61 A. Aggazzotti (Turin), Arch. ital. de Biol., U, 39, 1905. 



"G. Levenstein (N. Zuntz's Lab.), Pfliiger's Arch., 65, 278, 1897. 



68 A. Mosso, G. Galeotti, A. Aggazzotti, Arch. ital. de Biol., 41, 80, 384, 397, 

 1904, and Rendic Accad. dei Lincei Roma, XIII, XV. 



"Cf. P. v. Terray (Physiol. Instit., Budapesth), Pfluger's Arch., 65, 393, 

 1897. 



