382 TRAVELS AMONGST THE GREAT ANDES, chap. xix. 



whole body] were directly due to want of oxygen, why did they 

 not continue while we remained at a pressure of IG'oOO inches ? 

 and (3) In what way should I have benefited my circulation and 

 temperature (when both became normal) by taking draughts of 

 oxygen ? 



It is clear, as regards the pressures [elevations] we dealt with 

 (which it is interesting to observe embraced those at which Prof. 

 Bert urged contimcous inhalation^ namely, 5 to G,000 metres above 

 the sea), that the artificial use of oxygen was not necessary ; and, 

 further, that the temporary increase in the rate of the circulation 

 and in the temperature of the body, and the other conjoined dis- 

 agreeables, could not have been directly due to rarefaction of the air 

 or want of oxygen (although they occurred under diminution of 

 pressure), and that they must have been produced, as it is sug- 

 gested on p. 374, by some cause which was itself only temporary. 



In a discussion that took place in Paris, at the Academic de 

 Medecine, after the death of Croce-Spinelli and Sivel, M. Colin 

 remarked that the gas in the human body must needs have a 

 tendency to expand under diminution of external pressure. This 

 was pointed out a century earlier by Haller' and others. Prof. 

 Bert, however, refused to believe that this expansion could produce 

 an important effect, although he could not deny that it occurred. 

 During his Experiments 256 and 257, there were evidences that it 

 did occur,^ and he made the following observations upon them. 

 " Amongst other phenomena which persisted, notwitlistandiny the 

 inspiration of oxygen, because they depend entirely ujoon the dimi- 

 nution in the density of the air, I mention the gaseous evacuations 

 . . . respecting which neither aeronauts nor mountain-travellers 

 have spoken. ^^^ They are, no doubt, caused by expansion of 

 internal gas, consequent upon diminution in external pressure. 



' In Experiment 256 there are the following records. "11.25; gaz s'ecliappant 

 par en haut et par en bas." " 11.31 ; gaz s'echappent, et cependant le ventre reste 

 un peu gonfle." "11.47; des gaz s'echappent par la bouehe et I'anus." "11.48; 

 encore gaz." "11.52; encore gaz." 



2 This has not been due to non-familiarity with the 'phenomena.' 



