The physiological, pathological and therapeutical effects of compressed air / by Andrew H. Smith.

  • Smith, Andrew H. (Andrew Heermance), 1837-1910.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physiological, pathological and therapeutical effects of compressed air / by Andrew H. Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    opened the vessels of the neck, and allowed four ounces of the blood to flow into a six ounce vial. The space above the blood was then completely filled with olive oil, and a cork, pierced by one leg of a small U-shaped tube, was forced tightly into the bottle, dis- placing a portion of the oil, which escaped through the tube. By this arrangement every particle of air was excluded from the apparatus, even the tube, which extended a little below the cork, being entirely filled with oil. The object of the oil was to avoid the diffi- culty which would arise from coagulation of the blood in the tube if blood only were employed. The apparatus thus arranged was then taken into the open air. While passing through the lock five minims of oil escaped from the tube, which amount was increased during the next half hour to eight minims. The temperature of the caisson and that of the external air were almost exactly alike, so that the result obtained could not be influenced by contraction or expansion due to temperature. The eight minims, therefore, represented the bulk of air which was dis- engaged from the blood in consequence of the removal of the excess of pressure. This is only ^^ of the bulk of the blood experimented upon. Now the ex- periments of Demarquay show that from 80 to 150 c. centimetres of oxygen can be thrown into the veins of a medium-sized dog in the space of four or five minutes, without producing serious consequences; and other observers have demonstrated that air