]42 ON RESPIRATION. 



first rank among the illustrious dead, will not t believe, be 

 disputed. 

 Mr. Eilis as- But to return to the purpose, for which the above quota- 

 *" s ' tion was made. It is necessary, for the illustration of my 



proposition, I should make a' short extract from Mr. Ellis's 

 that no oxigen work. At page 198 he says: " We have endeavoured to 

 «nws mto ihe (i p rovej t ' nat no g asses either exist in the blood, or can be 

 «' transmitted through the vascular and cellular structure in- 

 " terposed between the air and that fluid in the lungs : con- 

 " sequently no oxigen can enter into the blood, to unite 

 "with its supposed carbon; nor, if such union did take 

 " place, could the carbonic acid be afterward expelled from 

 " that fluid." 

 Bicbat found T^ow is it not wonderful, that Mr. Ellis, writing thus, 

 hidrogen gas 6nou ] ( ] m ake the before mentioned extract from Mr. Bichat 

 through the m p ro °f" °f ft '■> which, instead of being so, goes directly to 

 taugs. contradict it? for in the analysis of his work before me, af- 



ter stating the injection of hidrogen gas into the lungs, and 

 keeping it there by a ligature on the trachea; and demon- 

 strating its passage into the blood by opening an artery, and 

 presenting a lighted taper to the, air bubbles formed on the 

 surface the blood which issues out; he thus continues: 

 " This rijj'urds a proof of the passage of air into the blood 

 " through the lungs, in addition to that of healthy re^ 

 " spiration, &c. 

 A* "niected ^ ^ e i ri j ect ' ou °f aM * nlto tne veins or arteries occasioning 



into the biood the destruction of animal life can be no proof, that oxigen 

 iressels kills bv j g not cnem j ca Uy absorbed by the blood in the lungs in 



its mechanical " . . 



action. healthy respiration ; for in the blood vessels it evidently kills 



The deadly ef- by its mechanical action only. Neither does the deleterious 

 feet dots not effect take place in the heart, as has been supposed; for 

 Itoheart. "' Bichat has shown, and indeed I myself have often seen, that 

 the heart beats long after the signs of animal life are extinct. 

 Air injected into the carotid artery has the same effect as 

 in the veins, with the addition of agitating the heart by con- 

 tact as a mechanical body. And uiso if injected into the 

 vena porta?, but inking a much longer time before the ani- 

 mal is affected, as the capillary circulation of the liver pre- 

 Vea\h of the V(J '" lts ' ts arrival so soon at the brain. And hence it has been 

 heart the effect concluded, that the death of the heart is the effect, and not 



the 



