CONNECTION BETWEEN BLOOD AND ITS GASES. 769 



Nitrogen. The blood contains about 1-8 volumes per cent, of 

 nitrogen, and this is present chiefly in a condition of solution. Thus 

 Lothar Meyer 1 and others 2 have found that the absorption of nitrogen 

 by defibrinated blood is proportional to the pressure. This, Paul Bert 3 

 showed, was also the case in living animals, but, owing to the want of 

 perfect ventilation of the lungs, the increase did not exactly follow 

 Dalton's law. Thus 



The coefficient of absorption of water for nitrogen is small, and the blood 

 has even less power of absorption, for Fernet, Setscnenow, Hiifner, and others 4 

 have shown that the presence of other substances in solution diminishes the 

 capacity of water to absorb gases. The following table shows the coefficient 

 of absorption of water for nitrogen at different temperatures : 



1 "Die Gase des Blutes," Inaug. Diss., Gottingen, 1857, S. 56. 



2 Setschenow, Sitzungsb. d. k. Akad. d. Wissensch. Maih.-natunv. CL, Wien, Bd. xxxvi. 

 S. 293. 



3 " La pression barometrique," Paris, 1878, p. 661. 



4 Fernet, Ann. d. sc. nat., Paris, Ser. 4, "Zool.," tome viii. p. 125 ; Setschenow, Mem. 

 Acad. imp. d. sc. de St. Petersbourg, 1879, tome xxvi. p. 6; Ztschr. f. physical. Chem., 

 Leipzig, 1889, Bd. iv. S. 117; Hiifner, Arch. f. PhysioL, Leipzig, 1894, S. 130; 1895, S. 

 209; Mackenzie, Ann. d. Phys. u. Chem., Leipzig, 1876, Bd. i. S. 438; Bohr, "Exper. 

 Untersuch. u. d. Sauerstoifaufnahme des Blutfarbstoffes," Copenhagen, 1885, S. 37. 



5 " Gasometrische Methoden," 1857, S. 136 ( " Gasometry, " Roscoe's transl., London, 

 1857). 



6 Ann. d. Phys. u. Chem., Leipzig, 1877, Bd. i. S. 632; Arch. f. PhysioL , Leipzig, 

 1890, S. 27. 



7 Ztschr. f. physical. Chem., Leipzig, 1892, Bd. ix. S. 173. 



VOL. I. 49 



