Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1853-09-22
MistflIanp.
The Atmosphere and its Effects upon
n. Animal Life, AK


A very interesting lecture was delivered OF
the llth inst, by DR.. GBscom, at the New
York Mechanics Institute, on the sInfiuenc,
OF Air in connection with h.Animal Life The
lecturer commenced by saying that he supposed
some of them would be Surprised TO hear thai
they lived at the bottom of an immense ocean
of air fifty miles deep; YET it was so, and the
color of this ocean whicilsis called the atmos-
phere, is deep ceruleans blue. To perceive
this color it was necessary to be able to see at
once the whole volume, apd also on a calm and
clear day, for no color coeld be perceived il
seen in small quantities, Of when there was
either wind or haziness. dn like manner the
color of water could not bs seen in small guam
titles, and was only pereeptible when there
was vast expanse of ocean. The air was
also substance capable tf condensation and
expansion. Its expansion was seen in the
winds, BY which ships we're made to traverse
the ocean, and also in windmilIs The torna-
do was another phase Of its expansion, by
which trees were uprooted and houses over
turned, and was almost equal to the power Of
steam. The greatest weight of the atmosphere
was fifteen ponnds TO the square inch, and this
weight presses on every way, both upward and
downward. To explain tie pressure upward,
the lecturer exhausted thes air out ofa large
vase, which then remained fast TO the plate on
which it stood, but on the air being let in it
was easily removed. remember. said he,
being asked the question, q there is pressure
OF iliteen pounds to the square inch, the reason
why we were not at dnce crushed bv the
weight but this is, as | Before explained, be-
cause the air presses in aH directions with the
same equal force, and hence there is an equi-
librium. This is most simportant element.
and one that requires to be known. and also
that the air never presses more than fifteen
pounds to the square inch.
The next quality of theAir is elasticity
Press il TO make it occupy smaller space
than it otherwise would, and then take awav
the weight, and it comes back and occupies lis
original space. The lecturer then explained
that in the air there were two gases one oxy-
gen, which is that part of 1he atmosphere by
which chiefly we live, and (which is the one
fifth part; and the other nitrogen, which is
iour-hiths OF the atmosphere. Oxygen sup
ports life and combustion.1l and nitrogen re-
strains its effects and dolls IFS operations.
The quantity of air which person consumes,
depends in measure on. ones self, and by
training can be made moresor less. The tailor
and shoemaker take little ih comparison with
the Iaborer, and the public speaker or singer,
or those who cry commodities for sale through
the streets. A man in good health makes
eighteen respirations in minute, and in twen-
ty-four hours consumes fifty-one hogsheads Of
the air. AS the oxygen which supports life is
SO small, we ought to be very particular how
we permit other gases TO mix with it and viii
ate it. The blood when it enters the lungs, is
black, but when the oxygen acts on it, it be-
comes red, and sends it through the veins to
impart life and animation. This black blood
is produced by carbon, andimparts the black
ness which we see in the face Of persons who
lose their lives by suffocati0n because the air
was not allowed to reach the lungs to purify
it. When We send out the air from the lungs,
we do not send it in the same manner as we
Inhaled it, for when exhaled it is as deadly a
poison as arsenic or corrOsHe sublimate. The
lecturer showed this by experiments, and filled
vase with his own breathfn which lighted
candle would not live. Its was such air as
killed persons who went down into wells in
the country, or who died when pan of char
coal was placed in a room The danger of
taking impure matter into tie stomach was not
50 great as into the Lungs, for the stomach had
power TO eject impurities Which the lungs had
not. Beside the impure al which we exhale,
there are $500 pores on efery square inch of
the surface of the body, and to body of large
size there are $3.50 square inches; and these
multiplied make ,0OO, 900 Of pores. There is
a sort of drainage pipe d the body, which
sends out matter as well asEgas, and this pipe
is calculated at twenty-eigh miles long. The
particles of matter which are sent out and which
do not dissolve, are so NUMEROUS, that in Chi
ma, where the houses are eSiow, and a great
many persons are in the habit of assembling in
one room, it has been discovered that, after IF
teen or twenty years, theseparticles adhere to
the ceiling of the rooms, thx the farmers will
contract to put up new ceiling if they are al
lowed to take down the oldI one, so valuable
has it been found for manure. - Scientific Amer
icdn.