Note 2 — Chapter III · OXYGEN AND THE CHIEF ASPECTS OF ITS SALINE COMBINATIONS

It is evident that the partial pressure (see Chapter I.) acts in respiration. The researches of Paul Bert showed this with particular clearness. Under a pressure of one-fifth of an atmosphere consisting of oxygen only, animals and human beings remain under the ordinary conditions of the partial pressure of oxygen, but organisms cannot support air rarefied to one-fifth, for then the partial pressure of the oxygen falls to one-twenty-fifth of an atmosphere. Even under a pressure of one-third of an atmosphere the regular life of human beings is impossible, by reason of the impossibility of respiration (because of the decrease of solubility of oxygen in the blood), owing to the small partial pressure of the oxygen, and not from any mechanical effect of the decrease of pressure. Paul Bert illustrated all this by many experiments, some of which he conducted on himself. This explains, among other things, the discomfort felt in the ascent of high mountains or in balloons when the height reached exceeds eight kilometres, and at pressures below 250 mm. (Chapter II., Note 23). It is evident that an artificial atmosphere has to be employed in the ascent to great heights, just as in submarine work. The cure by compressed and rarefied air which is practised in certain illnesses is based partly on the mechanical action of the change of pressure, and partly on the alteration in the partial pressure of the respired oxygen.