REVIEW — A REGISTER OF EXPERIMENTS. 
411 
standing of the “ address to the general reader,” with which Mr. 
Turner has prefaced Part III. It is this : — “ The important fact 
alluded to in the title-page of this the third part of my labours, is 
the discovery of a free channel of communication for the trans- 
mission of ordinary atmospheric air directly into the cavities of the 
heart, as received by the nostrils and windpipe, and transmitted 
through the lungs, wholly independent of the vascular pulmonary 
circulation.” 
Mr. Turner, feeling convinced that there exists in he arterial 
system a. gaseous as well as a liquid current, became, of course, most 
anxious to discover by what means, or through what channel, air 
obtained admission into the bloodvessels; and it was the following 
experiment, so curious in its results, confirmed by others of a 
similar nature, which led him to make the bold assertion, that 
there exists a “ free channel of communication for the transmission 
of ordinary atmospheric air,” from the lungs, “ directly into the 
cavities of the heart ,” — “ wholly independent of the vascular pul- 
monary circulation.” 
Through an incision made into the windpipe of a vigorous 
young horse were poured, at twice, a pound of crude mercury. 
For a quarter of an hour the animal continued shewing signs of 
pain and irritation ; but then became so “ calm,” that the opinion 
was “ he would have survived the shock.” However, “ he was 
immediately shot.” “ I do not hesitate,” continues Mr. T., “ to 
avow, that this experiment was instituted expressly with the 
expectation, ay, even with the hope, that I should find running 
mercury within the left ventricle of the heart” Four ounces of 
uncoagulated blood, “ rather inspissated and grumous,” were 
found in the left ventricle, upon the surface of which, after ex- 
posure to the air for a very few minutes, “ a slight film was quite 
evident to the naked eye, of a dirty white colour, and apparently 
metallic.” The blood, only an ounce, in the left auricle, “ pre- 
sented the same metallic film on its surface.” And both “ the 
blood from the auricle and ventricle has since been analyzed by 
an eminent chemist, and pronounced to be strongly impregnated 
with crude mercury” 
Reasoning on so curious — though it appears not to him, unex- 
pected — a result, our author continues : — “ It must, I imagine, be 
conceded, that structures which could be permeated by particles of 
a metallic body would be more readily penetrated by unmixed or 
pure atmospheric air. That the ordinary air of the atmosphere did 
accompany those particles of the quicksilver throughout the bron- 
chial tubes to the utmost limits of their ramifications in the horse 
experimented upon, I take it must also be admitted : then, it is 
obvious that one of the most important functions of the left 
