NTRODUCTION OF AIR INTO THE BLOOD. *JQ7 



X. 



Remarks on the Introduction of Air into the Blood through 

 the Lungs, in Answer to Mr. Acton. In a Letter from tk 

 Correspondent. 



To Mr. NICHOLSON* 

 SIR, 



JL OUR correspondent, Mr. Acton, appears rather hastily vindication of 

 to accuse Mr. Ellis of " a most singular perversion of one Mr - EJ1»« 

 of Mr. Bichat' s experiments" in the last number of your 

 Journal. It seems to be the object of Mr. E., in the first 

 paragraph alluded to, to show, that when air is forced into 

 the blood, through the lungs, it quickly destroys life; and 

 in support of this position he quotes facts from the writings 

 of Haller, Girtanner, and Bichat, which abundantly estab- 

 lish that point. According to Mr. Acton however, Bichat 

 is said to consider these experiments, as " affording a proof 

 " of the passage of the air into the blood, through the 

 " lungs, in addition to that of healthy respiration." Does 

 Mr. Ellis deny this ? On the contrary, has he not brought 

 forward these experiments expressly to prove it, with the 

 additional circumstance, that it speedily occasions death? 



But, by " a most singular perversion" of Mr. Ellis's 

 meaning, Mr. A. applies these experiments to another part 

 of that author's work, where he evidently appears to be 

 speaking only of natural respiration, and makes no allusion 

 whatever to the forcible injection of air into the blood, 

 which fact he had before admitted for a very different pur- 

 pose. In the language of Mr. A. I dare not say this was in- 

 tended ; but it is " wonderful," if the application be just, 

 that he did not rather undertake to show, that Mr. E., in 

 the two passages quoted, had contradicted himself, than 

 that he had perverted the experiments of Mr. Bichat. 



I am, &c. 



J. F. 



P. S. With respect to the great question, whether a por- Oxigen gas not 

 tion of the oxigen, consumed in respiration, be absorbd by J, *°Jj * n r J| pj * 

 X 2 the at ion. 



