demonstrated that the lungs can be inflated with pure oxygen gas and they 

 will keep so for forty-eight hours, without loss of oxygen. In these experi- 

 ments the heart was always removed, and all blood-vessels leading away from 

 the lungs were cleared of clots and left open. The lungs were kept in a 

 normal salt solution, at a temperature of 98° F. At the end of the time men- 

 tioned the lung tissue showed signs of decomposition, owing to the action of 

 the gas and water; consequently there was then a loss of oxygen. 



Moreover, I have performed tracheotomy on the living animal, killing it as 

 soon as the lungs could be inflated with oxygen gas and the trachea tied. In 

 every instance, upon opening the thoracic cavity, the lungs were found to be 

 inflated to their fullest capacity, remaining so for an indefinite period without 

 loss of oxygen. 



Furthermore, the living membrane of the lungs is protected from the dif- 

 fusion of gaseous matter, by the mucous secretion from its secretory cells, and 

 still more so by the extreme swiftness with which the current of life-force 

 passes through it. 



Living membranes absorb and secrete elements through organs which 

 Nature has prepared for that purpose. These organs of secretion and absorp- 

 tion may be stimulated or sedated by various influences, and they mark the 

 difference in Nature's methods of transfering elements in simple and in com- 

 plex forms of organic life. My experiments prove that oxygen may be sealed 

 in a pair of fresh lungs, and these can be carried about as though they were 

 an oxygen bag. 



It is the ofiice of venous blood to collect waste products from the tissues, 

 and carry them to the organs of exit. It has been mentioned, and it is a fact 

 that all excretions of waste material take place through glands and ducts of 

 organs, as in the skin and kidneys, and it would be unreasonable to consider 

 the lungs an exception to this general rule of organic life. 



It is estimated that about five hundred grammes of carboniferous, decaying 

 animal matter are excreted from the lungs every twenty-four hours. It is 

 claimed by some physiologists that all this mass of decaying matter passes out 

 of the blood by exmosis during the time of expiration. Venous blood is ex- 

 posed to the influence of atmosphere about one and one-half seconds ; during 

 this time it is supposed to give up carbon-dioxide, and to receive sufficient 

 oxygen to furnish energy for the entire system. 



There is no evidence that carbon-di-oxide is formed in the blood. Dalton, 

 in "Human Physiology," page 257, says: "In the blood, the plasma consists 

 mainly of organic substances in solution, and oxygen is abundant in the glob- 

 ules in a state of loose combination. But the union of carbon and oxygen 

 does not take place in the blood." 



The chemical analysis of venous blood shows more carbon in its compo- 

 sition than does that of arterial blood. When compared with inspired air 



