262 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



becoming obviously recuperated and working without 

 distress. 



The question has been raised as to whether the 

 administration of oxygen gas to a man or to a horse 

 when about to run a race should be considered as 

 " doping." It may perhaps be objected to by sportsmen, 

 as involving the provision of special apparatus which all 

 competitors would not be equally able to secure. But it 

 is not " doping," since that applies to the use of a drug, 

 which, whilst exciting to violent effort, produces an 

 injurious after-effect. Oxygen is not in this category ; 

 to take an extra quantity of oxygen into the lungs before 

 starting on a race is no more unnatural or risky than 

 to take an extra drink of water into the stomach or to 

 swallow meat extract and such special preparations before 

 or during a race. It would be interesting to see whether 

 a runner in the Marathon race would (as Dr. Hill would 

 expect) be greatly assisted if his trainer carried with him 

 a supply of pure oxygen, and from time to time refreshed 

 him with it. Football players might also be given oxygen 

 at half-time; an oxygenated team would, one surmises, 

 beat its uninspired competitors. A Fife team is reported 

 to have done so. On the roads favoured by cyclists one 

 may expect hereafter to find at the bottom of a long 

 ascent hawkers of " breaths of oxygen " provided with 

 gas-bags and calling out "Buy the lady a breff, sir!" It 

 is, perhaps, worth noting that the relief afforded by 

 oxygen-breathing is no less definite when the gas is taken 

 immediately after a race or sustained effort than when 

 used as a preliminary. The excess of choke-gas or 

 carbonic acid formed during great muscular effort is not 

 the principal cause of the distress experienced. That 

 gas is thrown off by increased expiration. It is the 

 using up of the oxygen and the insufficiency of the 

 supply in the atmospheric air inspired that causes, under 



