Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 2.djvu/201

 carbonic acid in the air respired upon the contractility of the muscular fibres of the heart.

I take for my example the newly-hatched trout. During the winters of 1869–'70 and 1870–'71, I hatched some thousands of this fish, many of which I daily submitted to microscopical examination. The result of my investigations, in reference to the action of the heart and to the influence upon it of a decreasing quantity of oxygen and an increasing quantity of carbonic acid in the water in which the fish was confined, shows—

That, on placing the fish in a glass trough containing a quantity of water, the heart is seen, under the microscope, to be affected in the following manner:

In the first few moments of examination the venous blood, collected by the veins from the head, back, and yelk-bag (the first two of which unite to form a bulbous vessel into which the third opens), is seen to be projected with considerable force and rapidity into the upper (auricle) of the two cavities of which the heart is composed, and thence as instantaneously into the lower (ventricle) cavity, which contracts with equal rapidity, and forces the blood into the branchial artery, which conveys it to the gills. The projection of the blood into the auricle, its passage into the ventricle, and its expulsion therefrom, are but the work of an instant. As the blood enters the auricle, both it and the ventricle seem to anticipate the charge of blood; but especially is this the case with the ventricle. Before the blood well touches the valve which guards the entrance from auricle to ventricle, the latter is observed to shorten its longitudinal diameter, to visibly meet, as it were, the coming charge of blood from the auricle, and to force it instantly into the branchial artery. There is no delay whatever of the blood in the auricle or ventricle. It is shot in a straight line from the vena cava through the auricle and the auriculo-ventricular valve, caught by the contracting ventricle, and deflected and forced, without a moment's delay, into the branchial artery.

From these observations it was evident that the contraction of the heart was not excited by the distention of its cavities, but that it was induced by the mere impingement of the blood upon its lining membrane. In contracting, the ventricle was seen to roll about one-third upon its axis, by which a portion of that part of it which was previously out of sight was brought into view. As soon as it had delivered its blood into the branchial artery, it relaxed, and increased again its longitudinal diameter, recoiling from systole with an energy and a rapidity equal to those of its contraction.

In three or four minutes the heart is observed to contract both less quickly and less energetically. A very short time after this the blood can be seen gently pouring into the auricle, and thence into the ventricle, which latter now allows itself to be about one-fourth filled before it contracts. It now expels its blood, and again dilates; but its