An essay on respiration. Pts I-II / By John Bostock, M.D.

  • John Bostock
Date:
1804
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on respiration. Pts I-II / By John Bostock, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    having the air applied to the face, mouth, and noftrils, may caufe it to attempt this new action of the thorax. Upon the whole he confiders breathing as owing to a peculiar fenfation of <f the body, which determines the mind or fenti- c< ent principle to put certain mufcles or organs in motion. With refpe6t to the problem prbpofed by Harvey, which was mentioned above, he obferves it to be of fo very eafy folution, that it is not a little furprizing, that many phyfiological writers fhould have attempted it in vain. When the foetus has once breathed, he remarks, that the blood which formerly pafled through the foramen ovale & ductus arteriofus, now paffes through the veflels of the inflated lungs, and will ever after continue to flow through them. If, therefore, the refpiration be difcontinued, the blood will ftagnate in thefe veffels, and the ani- mal will be fuffocated^ becaufe, according to his hypothefis, the alternate motion of the lungs in refpiration, is abfolutely neceflary to carry on the circulation of the blood through them, (a) Haller conceives that the foetus, having before birth been in the habit of fwallowing a portion of (a) On Vital Motions, Sect. Q,