On the function of respiration, in health and in disease, and more especially in cholera, typhus, &c. : also, on the formation of atmospheric air / by Richard Saumarez.

Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the function of respiration, in health and in disease, and more especially in cholera, typhus, &c. : also, on the formation of atmospheric air / by Richard Saumarez. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    ance of its having undergone any change, which could be called putrefactive. Neither is carbonic acid gas capable of turning arterial blood from a red vermilion to a purple or black colour. Dr. Goodwyn received red arterial blood, from the carotid artery of a sheep, into a phial filled with carbonic acid gas, and after agitating it for a considerable time, the blood retained its red colour.—With the air ex- pired from the lungs, it is far otherwise : it is by the reten- tion of carbon in the blood, that it becomes blackened, and its putrefaction accelerated. The chemical change which the expired air produces out of the body, is equally extraordinary, whilst putrid meat is made fresh by exposure to the influence of carbonic acid gas :—fresh meat becomes immediately putrid by coming in contact with the air expired from the lungs. Every butcher and poulterer knows, that, with the exception of lightning and electricity, there is nothing that has so much power to taint and to putrify fresh meat, as the air which is expired by numbers of individuals in confined situations. The difference which exists between carbonic acid gas and the gas expired from the lungs, is further proved, by the effect which each produces on different individuals, under different circumstances ; whilst carbonic acid gas causes death by suffocation, without creating any fever, the gas expired from the lungs of persons labouring under scarlatina and measles, the plague and typhus, and perhaps the malignant or Indian cholera, causes disease and death, by first exciting a specific fever of the same nature as the source from whence it arises, not only on individuals, but on multitudes exposed to its influence, situated in distant parts from each other.* * All epidemic diseases are contageous, but all contageous diseases are not epidemic. The itch, cancer, and a variety of others, are contageous, not epidemic ; immediate contact being absolutely necessary to produce the disease, beyond which it does not extend. In epidemic diseases, the poison, by which the disease is produced, may exist in the air, but it nevertheless must be carried by it, and come into immediate contact with the system, before it can excite the same disease on other persons.