48 Mr. R. H. M. Bosanqiiet on Mountain- Sickness; 



narrated, an explanation consistent with all the facts, inclu 

 ding the immunity enjoyed by Mr. Perring (p. 51). I thought 

 the matter too plain for publication. But the appearance of 

 Mr. Dent's article in the 'Nineteenth Century' (Oct. 1892), 

 " Can Mount Everest be ascended? " shows that my point of 

 view has escaped notice. This appears at once from the 

 remark at p. 611 : " Men of large vital capacity, with large 

 bones and full-blooded, are the best suited [for the ascent of 

 the highest mountains] ." So far as mountain-sickness of the 

 great-altitude type is concerned, this is certainly not true 

 without qualification : the case of Mr. Perring above alluded 

 to is in point. 



The body may be compared to a steam-engine and boiler, 

 the food-arrangements being paralleled by a mechanical stoker, 

 such that the supply of fuel can be fed into the reservoir of 

 the stoker in lump quantities, as food is fed into the stomach 

 at meals. The digestion and other internal arrangements, 

 which we may speak of as the " internal feed," pass this on 

 into the place of combustion just as a mechanical stoker does 

 fuel. When food is regularly taken, the internal feed will 

 supply the combustion within the body at a more or less con- 

 stant rate, not depending on any voluntary action at the 

 moment, but depending on the constitution, on the average 

 amount of food taken at meals, and probably on the efficiency 

 or wastefulness of the internal feed. 



The rate of the internal feed must vary enormously in 

 different persons. In men " of large vital capacity, . . . and 

 full-blooded/' it will generally be very much larger than in 

 persons of small vital capacity. 



Now we can easily suppose an internal feed so copious as 

 to approach, in its requirement of oxygen for its proper 

 combustion, the possible supply afforded by the breathing 

 mechanism. And my suggestion is simply that in cases of 

 great-altitude mountain-sickness, such as Mr. Whymper 

 relates, the diminution of the air-supply reaches a point at 

 which there is not enough oxygen for the consumption of the 

 fuel continually brought forward by the internal feed. Of 

 course, so long as this is the case, disturbance of the system 

 is to be expected from the accumulation of the reducing 

 (oxygen-devouring) substances furnished by the internal 

 feed to the blood. Under these circumstances, food would 

 probably not be taken for a time ; the internal feed would 

 after a time be reduced ; and an equilibrium of the system set 

 up again founded on a reduced food consumption. And this 

 is precisely what happened, according to Mr. Whymper's 

 account. 





