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CHAPTER XVI.
RESPIRATION AND OXIDATION.
During life a constant exchange of gases takes place between the
animal body and the surrounding medium. Oxygen is inspired and
carbon dioxide expired. This exchange of gases, which is called respira-
tion, is brought about in man and vertebrates by the nutritive fluids,
blood and lymph, which circulate in the body and which are in constant
communication with the outer medium on one side and the tissue-elements
on the other. Such an exchange of gaseous constituents may take place
wherever the anatomical conditions offer no obstacle, and in man it may
go on in the intestinal tract, through the skin, and in the lungs. As
compared with the exchange of gas in the lungs, the exchange already
mentioned, which occurs in the intestine and through the skin, is very
insignificant. For this reason we will discuss in this chapter only the
exchange of gas between the blood and the air of the lungs on one side
and the blood and lymph and the tissues on the other. The first is often
designated as external respiration, and the other, internal respiration.
Besides this we will discuss the oxidation processes caused by the internal
respiration.
I. THE GASES OF THE BLOOD.
Since the pioneer investigations of Magnus and Lothar Meyer, the
gases of the blood have formed the subject of repeated careful investiga-
tions by prominent experimenters, among whom must be mentioned first
C.LuDwiGand his pupils, and E. Pfluger and his school; and C. Bohr.
By these investigations not only has science been enriched by a mass of
facts, but also the methods themselves have been made more perfect
and accurate. In regard to these methods, as also in regard to the laws
of the absorption of gases by liquids, dissociation, and related questions,
the reader is referred to text-books on physiology, on physics, and on
gasometric analysis.
The gases occurring in blood under physiological conditions are
oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen, and traces of argon, and perhaps
also carbon monoxide. Traces of hydrogen and marsh-gas also some-
times occur. The nitrogen is found only in very small quantities, on an
average 1.2 vols, per cent. The quantity is here, as in all following
850
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