ON RESPIRATION. g\ 



jnay not be found interiorly in the animal or plant, as well 



in one cast:? as in the other. 



I am certain it was not my wish to quote Mr. Ellis's work Mr. Ellis ad- 



unfaiviv, and 1 do not conceive I have done so. However '^^^^'^ ^^^ 



'' ^ . contraaictorjr 



as your correspondent J. F. thinks I should have under- experifuents- 



taken to show rather that Mr. Ellis contradicted himself, 

 than that he perverted the experiments of Bichat, for his 

 satisfaction I must inform hmi I could easily have done so, 

 jf it be admitted, that two'experiments of an opposite na- 

 ture, m.entioned doubtless to prove the truth of the general 

 proposition, can be consitiered a contradictio!!. In page 

 118 of his work is the rollo\\in^- passage. " Nor when air 

 *' was forced down the windpipe of a dog in the experir 

 *' nients of Dr. Hulcs, was it able to pass into the puimo- 

 *' navy artery or yei^is:" and at page 128, " By forcing air 

 '* through the windpipe into the lungs with a syringe, and 

 " confining it there, he (Mr. Bichat) has made it to enter 

 V into the blood vessels." 



I cannot takelertve of your correspondent without remark-r 

 ing upon tiie unfairness of his statement in his postscript. I 

 appeal to yourself and readers if he have stated the question 

 at issue with accuracy: and as to his leaning to the side of 

 Mr. Ellift on account of the experiments of Messrs. Allen Expeiimrnts 

 andPepys and otlurs, f q^n only say, the strong impression ^' Messis. At* 

 on my mind at the time T read them was directly the reverse. 

 In the account of the experimeijts of Messrs. Allen and 

 Pepys, at page 203 of the 22d vol. of your Journal, is the 

 following passage. *' In this recital of experiments, which 

 " have occupied a considerable portion of tune and atten- 

 " tion, we have endeavoured to give a plain stafement of 

 " facts, from which every one may draw conclusions for 

 ♦< himself." Clearly showing their own minds were by no 

 means made up to decide u;jon th- truth of any particular 

 theory. And in tlie i'ollowiug page it runs thus: " When 

 *' respiration is attended with distressing circumstances, as 

 ** in the 14 and 15 experiments, there is reason to conclude, 

 ** that a portion of oxigen is absorhed', and in the last of 

 ** these experiments we may remark, that, as the oxigen 

 «' decreases in quantity, perception gradually ceases, and we 



" may 



