552 REPORT— 1893. 



no greater service than air, whether the recovery be brought about in an 

 atmosphere contaminated by carbonic acid or completely free of carbonic 

 acid, and whether artificial respiration be resorted to in addition or not. 



II. Pure oxygen, when inhaled by a healthy man for five minutes, 

 produces no appreciable efiect either on the respiratory rate and volume 

 or on the pulse rate and volume. 



III. Oxygen, whether pure or somewhat diluted, produced no efiect 

 on one particular patient, who sufiered from cardiac dyspnoea of modei'ately 

 severe type, in the direction of amelioration of the dyspnoea ; and com- 

 pared with air inhaled under the same conditions produced no appreciable 

 effect, either on the respiratory rate and volume or on the pulse rate and 

 volume. 



IV. An animal may be placed in a chamber, the general cavity of 

 which contains about 50 per cent, of carbonic acid, and retained there 

 for a long time without supervention of muscular collapse, provided a 

 gentle stream of a respirable gas-air or oxygen indifferently be allowed 

 to play upon the nostrils and agitate the surrounding atmosphere. 



The points which are not proved are — 1st. Whether oxygen produces 

 marked effects, toxic or otherwise, when inhaled for a long time ; 2nd. 

 Whether oxygen is of service in cases of cyanosis due to diminished 

 respiratory surface, e.g., in pneumonia ; 3rd. Whether oxygen is capable 

 of bringing about the cure of many diseases in which it has received the 

 credit of being a remedial agent. 



Finally, since this investigation was primarily undertaken in the 

 interests of the mining community, the Committee are strongly inclined to 

 urge that advantage be taken of the fact, now ascertained, that oxygen is 

 of no greater service than pure air in cases of asphyxia, and that the 

 experiment be made of keeping a few cylinders of air, with nose and 

 mouth pieces, ready for use in those parts of the workings where men 

 might be most easily imprisoned. The expense of the compressed air 

 would be much less than that of oxygen, and the effect would be equally 

 good. It seems quite reasonable to suppose that when a suffocated 

 person has to be dragged through a long passage, itself more or less 

 contaminated as regards its atmosphere, the chances of ultimate recovery 

 will be greater if the effects of this poisonous atmosphere be neutralised 

 at the commencement and during the progress of the work of rescue 

 than if no such attempt be made until fresh air be reached in the 

 ordinary way. 



The Legislative Protection of Wild Birds' Eggs. — Report of the 

 Committee, consisting of Mr. Thomas Henry Thomas, R.G.A. 

 (Chairman), Rev. Canon Tristram, B.D., LL.D., F.R.S., Pro- 

 fessor Alfred Newton, F.R.S., Professor Adolph Leipner, F.Z.S., 

 Professor Newton Parker, Ph.D., F.Z.S., and Dr. Charles Tan- 

 field Vachell (Secretary). (Drawn up by the Secretary.) 



Tour Committee beg leave to report that early in the present session 

 * A Bill to Amend the Wild Birds Protection Act, 1880,' was brought 

 into the House of Commons by Sir Henry Maxwell, M.P., and others, 

 and that on April 13 it was ordered by the House to be printed. 

 Thereupon your Committee gave this Bill their careful attention, and 



