An experimental inquiry into the properties of carbonic acid gas or fixed air : its mode of operation, use in diseases, and most effectual method of relieving animals affected by it ; being an inaugural thesis, submitted to the examination of the Rev. John Ewing, S.T.P. provost ; the Trustees and medical faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, on the 12th day of May, 1797 ; for the degree of Doctor of Medicine / by Joseph Johnson, of Charleston, (S.C.) member of the Chemical, and honorary member of the Philadelphia Medical Society.

  • Johnson, Joseph, 1776-1862.
Date:
1797
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An experimental inquiry into the properties of carbonic acid gas or fixed air : its mode of operation, use in diseases, and most effectual method of relieving animals affected by it ; being an inaugural thesis, submitted to the examination of the Rev. John Ewing, S.T.P. provost ; the Trustees and medical faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, on the 12th day of May, 1797 ; for the degree of Doctor of Medicine / by Joseph Johnson, of Charleston, (S.C.) member of the Chemical, and honorary member of the Philadelphia Medical Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    J3 reverfe of this is true, and that its operation is wholly ftimulant. M. Troja*, who gives the fined hiflory of the effects produced by carbonic acid on the animal body, of any author who has hitherto appeared on the fubject, in inveftigating the nature of the caufe which produced thefe effects, has firfl inftituted an inquiry to deter- mine whether the acid nature of this aeriform fluid may not be the property, by which, it fo fpeedily produces death f. After many ingenious comparative experiments with marine acid gas, &c. he proves that this is. not the cafe,, provided that its operation as an acid be regarded only as coagulating the blood. This opinion, I muff confefs, (truck me mo.fl forci- bly when I firfl began to reflect on the fubject. I obferved that all the acids coagulated the blood, and carbonic among the reft -y I reflected on the faline tafte of the blood ; knew that alkalis would preferve its fluidity when removed from the body ; obiervecf that folutions of foap, the oily part of which is rendered* mifcible with water, by its union with the alkaline, were coagulated by carbonic acid, which I fuppofed neutralized the alkali, fo as to difengage the oil from its mixture, and from thefe confiderations- I thought it probable that the 'alkaline matter of the blood preferved its fluidity, and that a coagulum was pro- duced in a manner fimilar to that of the foap, by the alkaline principle being neutralized. I thought this opinion the more probable, when I knew no reafon, why carbonic acid might not act on the blood, through the membrane inverting the lungs as effec- tually as oxigenous gas. 'This opinion, however plaufible it appeared in theory, 1 was obliged to refign, on feeing the experiment of Girtanner, which fhows that venous blood only has its coagulation expedited by carbonic acid, and that arterial blood is not affected * Sec Rofier's Journal, Vol T. for 1778, p. 174. -)• Ibid p. 302.