The Washington times., 1919-08-03

THE newly created and extensive air
services Of all the belligerent ha-
l. tions. q product OF war, now lie
ready for the benefcent purposes Of
peace.
Among those purposes. we are con-
WINGED, will be the still more successful
treatment Of tuberculosis, for advantage
Will be taken Of the extraordinary physio-
logical effects produced by flying, all Of
which seem well calculated TO aid the or
ganism afflicted by tuberculosis.
1t has also been suggested, in the same
quarter from which the idea of utilizing
controlled altitude in the treatment Of
tuberculosis emanated, that by the same
means We might be able 10 influence fav-
orably the grave anemias, particularly
that most battling Of diseases, pernicious
anemia
AS one rises far above sea level less
and less oxygen is taken into the system.
At sea level our atmospheric air contains
about 81 per cent Of oxygen; at 1000 feet
elevation it contains 16 per cent; at 5000
feet, 1916 per cent; at 5000 feet, 149 per
cent; at 10000 feet, 142 per cent: at
1000 feet, 1877 per cent: at 10000 feet,
1872 per cent; at 1900 feet, 1877 per cent,
and at $4,000 feet, 1872 per cent.
Now, in order to meet the oxygen def
cheney, the body is obliged to compensate
in some way, and this compensation makes
itself manifest through a greatly increased
lung ventilation, the breathing growing
deeper and fuller as the elevation in
creases, through an improvement in the
circulation in the tissues, through a rails
ing of blood pressure, and through a run
ring up Of the percentage Of the hemo-
g'obin (coloring matter and carrier of
cXygen) in the blood and Of the number
of red and white blood corpuscles.
Just how these remarkable reactions
come about we shall now endeavor to ex-
plain.
DR.. A W. Hewlett, Of the University Of
Michigan, has found that the total blood
volume, including all the blood elements,
increases automatically at high attitudes.
so that the oxygen-carrying capacity Of
the blood can be intensified. Nature pro-
vides for this automatic adjustment so
that even though the atmosphere may con-
tain less oxygen at a given altitude. the
mechanisms Of the body will see TO II that
Is much oxygen as possible is delivered
t. the tissues, for upon oxygenation de-
PEND our metabolism and our very lives.
OF course, this increase in total blood
volume is a nutritive phenomenon. In
other words, Il must follow upon increased
assimilative powers. It becomes more
marked the longer one resides at a high
altitude. In short flights the increase Of
red and white blood cells and hemoglobin
is believed to be due to a loss Of fluids,
with resulting concentration Of the blood,
which would give only a relatively high
blood count and nemoglobin percentage,
but long residence at a high altitude final
" results in an absolute and not merely a
relative increase in the blood elements,
the red cells running up from the normal
100000 per cubic millimeter Of blood to
as many as 100000.
Regarding the increased pulmonary ven
tilation, Bancroft has shown that its direct
cause is an increased amount of acid in
the blood. Any increase in the acidity Of
che blood promptly stimulates the respira-
tUry centre in the brain. The object Of the