AND ANIMAL LIFE. 293 



ject," that lie may expel "portion after portion 

 of the contaminated air, as will in some measure 

 restore the balance of arterial and venous blood." 

 If this opinion be examined, it will be found ku 

 correct. It is not the bad air which the chest 

 contains, nor the good which it wants, that pro^ 

 longs or would relieve the paroxysm. If the pa- 

 tient could receive oxygenated air, and if this 

 stimulated as it does in a natural inspiration, it 

 is not improbable that the life of the individual 

 would be destroyed. The introduction of fresh 

 air would accelerate the circulation, and send a 

 still greater quantity of blood to the heart, which 

 ceased, and ceases to act, because it had, and has, 

 more than it can circulate. During the Asphyxia- 

 ted stage of the paroxysm, the heart, in the great- 

 er number of instances, is operating slowly with-, 

 out the dangerous assistance of the lungs ; but as 

 this is only to a small extent, it requires some 

 time before it can relieve itself of its accumulat- 

 ed burden : when it has accomplished this object, 

 inspiration succeeds, and the stimulus of the air 

 is then beneficial, as it tends to establish the har- 

 mony which must subsist between the respiratory 

 and the circulatory systems. 



CCCXX. The efforts which the individual 

 makes are instituted neither to admit pure nor 

 send out impure air. The patient, whether sen- 

 sible, or only obscurely so, during the paroxysm, 

 invariably acts from sensations. The congestion 



