THE COMPOSITION OF EXPIRED AIR. 395 



was produced by a volatile poison, which poison is absorbed by the 

 H 2 SO.i, which thus saves the life of the animal in the last cage. 



They stated (16) that any alkali used to absorb carbonic acid from 

 expired air would also change the organic poison, and proposed an 

 apparatus by means of which the organic poison should be supplied to 

 the fresh air entering the jars by volatilizing it from fluid condensed 

 from the expired air. 



V. Hoftnann-Wellenhof, in 18S8 (17), found that when he injected 

 large quantities of the condensed fluid of respiration at 12° C, instead 

 of at 37° 0. — intravenous injection — a resemblance of the results 

 obtained by Brown- Sequard and d' Arson val was produced. Under 

 such circumstances he observed muscle weakness, slowing of respira- 

 tion, fall of temperature, and dilatation of the pupils, though the ani- 

 mals remained alive. He injected ten rabbits with 6 to 30 c. c. of the 

 fluid warmed to the body temperature, all the results being negative. 

 Three other animals were injected in the jugular vein, one receiving 28 

 c. c. of the fluid, another 25 c. c. of distilled water, and a third 50 c. c. of 

 distilled water. There was no difference in the symptoms noted in the 

 animals. He noticed symptoms of depression only after injecting 50 

 c. c, or more, of the fluid. In a series of seventeen experiments with 

 inoculations of from 30 to 50 c. c. each of the fluid, in twelve there 

 appeared Inprnoglobinuria; six of these died. As the result of his 

 experiments, he concluded that the existence of a volatile poison in 

 the expired air of healthy human beings has not been demonstrated 

 by his experiments, this being a direct contradiction of the results of 

 Brown-Sequard and dArsonval, as were also those of Dastre and 

 Loye. 



TJffelmann, in 1888 (18), found that there was a perceptible increase 

 in organic matter in the atmosphere of a sleeping room occupied by 

 several persons for some hours, increasing in amount with the length 

 of time the room was occupied. 



Lehmann and Jessen, in 1890 (19), collected 15 to 20 c. c. of the con- 

 densed fluid per hour exhaled from the breath of a person breathing 

 through a glass spiral laid in ice. The fluid was always clear as water, 

 odorless, and of neutral reaction. Nessler's reagent showed the pres- 

 ence of ammonia constantly, with good teeth but little, sometimes merely 

 a trace, with bad teeth, more, though never more than 10 milligrams of 

 NH 4 C1 in 1 liter. Traces of HC1 were also constantly found. A small 

 sediment remained on evaporation, ranging from 39 to 86.4 milligrams 

 per liter of fluid. This they believed to originate from the glass ves- 

 sel; probably calcium oxalate. They tested its reducing power upon 

 solution of permanganate of potash, making two control determinations- 

 The first determination showed 3.0 milligrams of O for the oxidation of 

 1 L. ; the second, 4.2 milligrams of O. They were uuable to obtain any 

 alkaloid reaction in the condensed fluid, or in its distillates, by means 

 of PtCl 4 , AuCl 3 , KOdl, KBil, KI, Bouchardet's reagent, K 2 CrO e , picric 



