Biochemical Studies of Expired Air in Relation to Ventilation

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 Excerpt: ...apparatus which permitted the separation of the currents of inspired and expired air. The'expired air was led from the apparatus into a glass spiral of wide calibre surrounded by ice. The condensed liquid was collected in a flask, which, as well as the other apparatus, had been sterilized or cleaned with the greatest care. The dog thus treated was tied down and left in this position in all the experiments for a day. The quantity of condensed fluid during this time varied in general from 400 to 600 grams. The results obtained upon examination of the condensate were quite different from those of Brown-Sequard and D'Arsonval. The liquid thus obtained was always clear and odorless. The evaporation of 200 grams of this liquid at over 6o C. left no appreciable residue (about 0.001 gram). Its density was constantly near that of water. The reaction to litmus was neutral or slightly acid; the acidity was attributed to the dissolved carbonic acid. The liquid did not reduce potassium permanganate either in the cold or when heated, and had no effect upon ammoniacal silver nitrate, gold salts nor platinum salts. Neither concentrated alcohol nor Bouchardet's reagent gave a precipitate. Nessler's reagent revealed traces of ammonia but not in a constant manner. In a first series of experiments, Gaussin studied the action of the condensed expired air when injected into different animals (dogs, rabbits, guinea-pigs) and in different routes (intravenous, subcutaneous, peritoneal). In some experiments the condensation liquid from the same animal was injected for comparison into animals of different species. In other cases, the liquid from the same origin was injected into the same species but by different routes. In another series of experiments he investigated the physiologic...