GASES PERMEATE MEMBRANES. 115 



a peculiar condition is produced, in which, by the 

 act of inspiration, not only oxygen but atmospheri- 

 cal air, with its whole amount (ths) of nitrogen, 

 penetrates into the cells of the lungs. This air is 

 carried by the circulation to every part of the body, 

 so that every part is inflated or puffed up with the 

 air, as with water in dropsy. This state ceases, 

 without pain, as soon as the entrance of the air 

 through the wound is stopped. There can be no 

 doubt that the oxygen of the air, thus accumu- 

 lated in the cellular tissue, enters into combination, 

 while its nitrogen is expired through the skin and 

 lungs. 



Moreover, it is well known that in many gramini- 

 vorous animals, when the digestive organs have been 

 overloaded with fresh juicy vegetables, these sub- 

 stances undergo in the stomach the same decompo- 

 sition as they would at the same temperature out of 

 the body. They pass into fermentation and putre- 

 faction, whereby so great a quantity of carbonic acid 

 gas and of inflammable gas is generated, that these 

 organs are enormously distended, sometimes even to 

 bursting. From the structure of their stomach or 

 stomachs, these gases cannot escape through the 

 oesophagus ; but in the course of a few hours, the 

 distended body of the animal becomes less swoln, 

 and at the end of twenty-four hours no trace of the 

 gases is left. (25) 



Finally, if we consider the fatal accidents which 

 so frequently occur in wine countries from the 

 i 2 



