Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-01-01
THE PROCESS OF BREATHING.

Respiration is rather an important oper"'ion w
oil sentient Beings. But how few persons under'
stand, even partially, the comprehensive meaning
of the term applied to the Inhalation and exhala'
tion of atmospheric air. and the multiform purpos'
es which the subtle agent has to perform in sus'
tanning vitality in the human system. A writer
in Blackwood's Magazine has undertaken to solve
these problems in part, and We avail ourselves oil
the results of his scientific researches.
Respiration is defined. in the outset, as that iunc'
ton of the lungs or gills by means of which the
blood absorbs oxygen, and parts with carbonic
acid and some other noxious elements. The lungs
of a man are described as an aggregation OF prom
chial tubes and air sacs. Between the air vesseis
run the capillary blood vessels. These are so nu'
merous, that the diameter of the meshes formed
by their network is less than the three'thousandth
of an inch, and the number of air cells is calculat-
ed at not less than six hundred millions.
In breathing, the air is drawn in by the nostrils
and passes into the bronchial tubes, and from
thence into the air chambers. Here il yields part
of it's oxygen, and receives carbcnic acid in ex'
change. 1t has been found by experiment that
while twenty-five cubic inches of air is the quantity
expelled in ordinary quiet breathing, the amount
will rise to ninety, and even two hundred and forty
cubic inches by very energetic efforts. IL is there
fore calculated that an adult man, with q we'll
developed chest, will retain about one hundred and
seventy cubic inches Of air in his lungs, after each
expiration, during ordinary breathing and as
twenty five cubic inches will be added at the next
inspiration, there will be alternately one hundred
and seyenty.fve and two hundred cubic inches of
air acting on the blood which rushes over the
vast area of the lungs. Tho phrase "vast area"
g No t;oD E. for small aa the hulk of those
organs truly is, the amount of surface on which
blood is exposed to The air in them, has been cal
culated by Lindenau at not less than two thousand
six hundred and ~forty'two square feet. Is it not
wonderful to reflect that, in the course of a single
year, che hundred thousand cubic feet of air have
been drawn in aud expelled, by something like
nine million OF separate and complicated actions
of breathing, to arterialize more than three thou
sand and FIVE hundred tons Of blood?
We are constantly exhaling carbonic acid, but
in variable quantities. Men exhale much more
than women during the ages of from sixteen to
forty the quantity exhaled by men nearly doubles
that exhaled by women of the same ages. In men
it is obser we'd that the amount gradually increases
from the age of eight to that of thirty. making a
sudden start at the approach of puberty. From
the age of thirty it decreases gradually, till at ex.
freme old age the am punt is no greater than it was
at ten. In women a noticeable phenomenon is
observed the amount increases from infancy to
puberty, Just as in men but at that epoch the in
crease suddenly ceases, aud remains stationary till
the change of life, when the amount increases.
When we breathe over and over again the same
mir, it becomes slowly vitiated by the constant ex'
halation of carbonic acid, which brings the air up
to a point where the difference between it and the
blood--as regards the proportion OF carbonic acid
disappears, tho blood ceases to be arterialized'
and the vital functions are arrested.
Under such conditions, we respire, at first, with
great difficulty, but get accustomed to it, and seem
to breathe easily in the poisoned atmosphere, a
state of things Produced by the depression of all
the functions Of nutrition and secretion, The
danger to be apprehended, when this occurs, is il
Illustrated by the following examples:
A sparrow left in a bell glass to breathe over
aud over again the same air will live in it for UP
wards of three hours bot at the close Of the sec-
ond h%our-when there is consequently still air Of
sufficient purity to permit this sparrow's breathing
1t for more than an hour longer-if n fresh and
vigorous sparrow be introduced it will expire al
most Immediately. The air which would suffice
for the respiration of one sparrow sufocates anoth'
or. Nay more, is the sparrow lie taken from the
glass at The close of the third hour, when very
feeble, it may be restored to activity and no soon
er has It recovered sufficient yigor to fly about
again, than, il once more introduced into tie
atmosphere from which it was taken, it will per-
ish Immediately. Another experiment points to a
similar result. A sparrow is confined in a bell
glass, and at the end of an hour and a half it is
still active, although obviously suffering a second
sparrow is introduced in about ten minutes the
new come is 6sad. while the original occupant
dies about the lecture.room as soon as liberated.
One cannot try experiments on human beings as
on animals, but accident and disease frequently
furnish US with experiments made to our hand
What has been Just related OF the birds is confirm
ed by an accident which befel two young French
women. They were in a room heated by q coke.
stove. One Of them Was suffosated and fell sense.
less ca the ground. The other, who was In bed,
suffering from typhoid fever resisted the poison
oxs ind uence Of the atmosphere, SO as to be able
70 scream till assistance came. They we're both
rescued, but the healthy girl who s%accumbed to
the noxions air, was found to have a paralysis of
the left arm, which lasted for more than six
months. Here, as in the case of the sparrows.
We End the paradoxical result to be that the pois.
oned action Of a vitiated air is better resisted by
the feeble. sickly organism, than by the vigorous,
healthy organism.
Breathing is an organic function. by which car
bonnie acid Is exhaled. and oxygen absorbed. Elk
~psriments Of the most satisfa Glory character prove
this to be the case. The carbonic acid emitted
from the lungs and bodies of animals serves as
the subsistence, for the mighty expanse of plant
lie covering the surface Of the earth. Plants take