PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF LACK OF OXYGEN 415 



time. At 10:23 the auricle beat 72 times, while the ven- 

 tricle beat 42 times per minute. The ventricle often con- 

 tracted only once to every two, or even at times three, auric- 

 ular contractions. At 10:35, however, the rate of the 

 ventricular and the auricular contractions was the same, 

 namely, 84 per minute, and from then on they continued 

 the same. These phenomena, which are characteristic of 

 all experiments with carbon dioxide, were never observed in 

 replacing the air by pure hydrogen. 



In another series of experiments I permitted CO 2 and 

 hydrogen to pass alternately through the gas-chamber. In 

 one case I turned on the hydrogen at 8:30 A. M. At 10:30 

 the heart beat 24 times per minute; at 10:31 the hydrogen 

 current was interrupted and the CO 2 current was turned on. 

 (Through a simple T-tube connection and a pair of pinch 

 cocks it was possible to pass either the hydrogen or the CO 8 

 through the gas-chamber at will, without admitting air.) In 

 a few minutes the ventricle ceased to beat and the circula- 

 tion stopped. After an hour the current of carbon dioxide 

 was interrupted, and hydrogen was again passed through 

 the chamber. After forty minutes the ventricle again be- 

 gan to beat ; the number of its beats was 24, and remained 

 so until death. By replacing the C0 2 by hydrogen it is 

 therefore possible to do away with the poisonous action of 

 the former. This experiment demonstrates very nicely a 

 fact which is perhaps doubted by no one: that carbon 

 dioxide and lack of oxygen have entirely different effects, 

 which in ordinary cases of asphyxia are added together. 1 

 In this way it is possible by passing through the chamber 

 a current of pure hydrogen gas to bring to life again a 

 ventricle which has been asphyxiated in carbon dioxide. 



i It also demonstrates very nicely the possibility that other non-volatile 

 poisonous substances may be formed, by lack of oxygen, which are destroyed again 

 when oxygen is again admitted. The phenomena of fatigue may belong to 

 category. [1903J 



