

APPENDIX II. 151 



metrekilogram* for each systole. During the ascent, 

 Fick's pulse was about 120 per minute. That gives 

 for the 5 '5 hours of the ascent an amount of work 

 which may be estimated at 25,344 metrekilograms, 

 entirely employed in the maintenance of the circu- 

 lation. No attempt has yet been made to estimate 

 the labour of respiration. One of us has shown, 

 however, in the second edition of his Medical 

 Physics (p. 206), that Bonders' well-known investi- 

 gations concerning the conditions of pressure in the 

 cavity of the thorax give sufficient data for such an 

 estimate. He has there shown that the amount of 

 work performed in an inspiration of 600 cubic cen- 

 tims. may be rated at about 0'63 metrekilogram. 

 Fick breathed during the ascent at an average rate 

 of about 25 respirations per minute, which gives, 

 according to this estimation, an amount of respira- 

 tory work for the whole ascent of 5,197 metrekilo- 

 grams. If we add this, and the number represent- 

 ing the work of the heart, to the external work per- 

 formed by Fick, we obtain a total of 159,637 metre- 

 kilograms, j If we suppose that Wislicenus's respira- 

 tory and circulatory work bore the same proportion 

 to Fick's as his bodily weight did to Fick's, i.e., 7 : 6, 

 we obtain for Wislicenus's amount of work, as far 

 as it is possible to calculate it, a total of 184,287 

 metrekilograms. J 



* 0-43 is here assigned as the work of the left, and - 21 as 

 that of the right ventricle. 



f 129,096 $ 148,656 



25,344 29,568 



5,197 6,063 



159,637 184,287 



