published soon in the Ztsch. f. Biologie. He expects ultimately
to see how long animals will live with small amounts of oxygen and
considers the field very wide.
Dr. Gamgee criticises Prof. Kronecker's chemical work very
severely.
Experiments on the influence cf pressure on the lungs.--The tra¬
cheal canula employed in the above described experiments with rabbits
was used primarily for the study of the supplementary problem of the
effect of different pressures on the inside and outside of the lungs.
Secondly, rabbits are very sensitive to the presence of increased
carbon dioxide in the air. It acts reflexively on the nose mucous
and closes the nose so that regular nasal breathing could not be
employed.
With regard to the pressure on the lungs, he found that if there
was a difference of 30 mm. of mercury in either direction, it would
kill the animal. If there was a diminished pressure on the outside
of the body, the animal would become distended and actually blow up.
A study of this problem was possible only with the canula.
Researches on the heart.—Prof. Eronecker is especially interested
in problems of intermediary metabolism and thinks we have been all
wrong in devoting our time to vork involving only measurement of the
end products of metabolism. He was led to this work by his studies
of mountain sickness. He thinks that mountain sickness is the physical
effect of the pressure on the lungs and does not agree with the ideas
regarding the influence of the variations in percentage of oxygen,
carbonic cid, etc. Going back to the old experiments of Hermann
and Pflttger, he finds that a muscle dan work for some time in a carbon
dioxide free atmosphere, or indeed, in a vacuum, i.e., does not need
any oxygen. Prof. Eronecker has washed out a frog's heart and let