68 



Scientific Proceeding (32). 



tained normal, — not asphyxial in respect either to the oxygen or 

 carbon dioxide contents. When the stomach was distended with 

 air, and the large intestine and lower ileum with bread mush, 

 movements in these three parts of the alimentary canal were seen 

 identical with those shown by the radiographs of Cannon. In the 

 stomach a deep constriction developed at the pre -antral groove 

 every 1 5 seconds and moved toward the pylorus where it disap- 

 peared as its successor was developing. In the colon there was 

 active anti-peristalsis. In the ileum vigorous rhythmic segmenta- 

 tion was seen. 



In other experiments I have found that animals under ordinary 

 operative conditions develop, and remain in, a state of acapnia. 

 This lowered carbon dioxide content of the blood and tissues, by 

 inducing loss of tonus, is the cause of the failure of peristalsis after 

 laparotomy. The essential point in the above described method 

 is the prevention of acapnia. 



29 (367) 



Studies on the effects of carbon mon-oxide poisoning. 



By A. I. RINGER. (By invitation.) 



\^Frojn the Physiological Laboratory of the New York University and 

 Bellevue Hospital Medical College^ 



If an animal be allowed to breathe an atmosphere containing 

 carbon mon-oxide, it will soon present a series of circulatory, 

 respiratory, cerebral and metabolic disturbances, which, if carried 

 too far, will result in death. These disturbances are believed to 

 be brought about by the reduction of the oxygen-carrying capacity 

 of the blood, due to the formation of the relatively stable carbon 

 mon-oxide-hemoglobin, thus producing a state of progressive as- 

 phyxiation of the tissues. The severity of these disturbances de- 

 pends entirely upon the degree of asphyxiation ; and, with the 

 exception of some individual peculiarities in a few of the twenty- 

 one dogs that I have experimented upon under anaesthesia, all pre- 

 sented the same symptoms at the same stage of asphyxiation. 



In nine experiments the following subjects were studied in 

 their relationship to the degree of saturation of the hemoglobin 

 with carbon mon-oxide : (i) the pulse, (2) the blood pressure, 



