XXVI. Experimental inquiries into the chemical and other phenomena of respiration, and their modifications by various physical agencies

• Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1859
• Subjects: Carbonic acid
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1859.0026; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstl.1859.0026

Notwithstanding the number of valuable observations upon this subject which have been made since the publication of the first memoir of Lavoisier, there is but little which has been conclusively established. Of the causes inducing this, two have paramount importance, viz. the practice of deducing large from small quantities, in reference to a subject in which the quantities are ever varying, and the absence of any method whereby experiments could be repeated so frequently as to trace the changes actually proceeding during the inquiry. I have named these two because it is to correct them that I have directed my own observations. During the past year I had the honour to transmit to the Royal Society the results of an extended inquiry into the influence of various agents over the quantity of air inspired, a short abstract of which was published in the ‘Proceedings’ of the Society. Since that period I have carried the inquiry further, and have determined the influence of those agents over the carbonic acid exhaled, as well as over other phenomena of respiration.