Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 2.djvu/202

 dilatation, like its contraction, is not so instantaneous as it was when first observed under the microscope. In a short time longer the sensibility of the heart is greatly diminished, for the blood is seen to be accumulating in both the auricle and ventricle, but especially in the former, from both of which cavities it is now only partly expelled by the contraction of the heart.

At length, just before death, the blood is seen to flow from the auricle into the ventricle, thence into the branchial artery and along it, the heart being passive during this time, and only now and then at long intervals manifesting a very slight and partial contraction. During the whole of this time the blood is coagulating more and more in the auricle and ventricle, but especially in the former; and, when at length the heart has ceased to beat, the auricle and the vena cava opening into it are fully distended, while the ventricle is only partly distended with black-red blood. In the last moments of life, after the heart has ceased to beat, the branchial artery is seen to be pushing forward its slender current of blood, and to become at length quite empty and transparent.

Here, then, as the oxygen dissolved in the water in which the fish is confined becomes exhausted, and as the carbonic acid increases, the sensibility and contractility of the heart are diminished, and at length entirely destroyed. The negation of oxygen, and the increase of carbonic acid, have culminated in the death of the fish.

Precisely the same effect is produced upon the human heart by an accumulation of carbonic acid in the air respired.

In the ordinary condition of the atmosphere, in which carbonic acid does not exceed one part in a thousand parts of that medium, its effects upon the heart are inappreciable. When, however, the carbonic acid has accumulated to the extent of 1 per cent. of the air respired, it begins to produce a slight feeling of faintness, and some degree of uneasiness across the brow. At 2 per cent. the heart's action is quickened, the sense of faintness is greater, there is slight giddiness, with heaviness and constriction of the head, together with nausea. At 3 per cent. all these symptoms are increased. There are vertigo, fluttering of the heart, nausea and sickness, followed by an overwhelming sense of muscular prostration. At this moment the contractions of the heart become very feeble, the skin relaxes, and is bedewed with a cool, clammy perspiration. These symptoms deepen with the increasing quantity of carbonic acid in the air respired until the utmost limit of toleration is reached, beyond which life can no longer be maintained. At this stage lethargy supervenes; and, at the moment of its occurrence, the heart begins to beat less frequently and much less powerfully than before. This condition is the parallel of that observed in the young trout, when the blood begins to accumulate and to coagulate in the auricle and ventricle, and when the heart's sensibility and contractility are reduced in the greatest degree.