Volume 2

A history of British reptiles / [Thomas Bell].

  • Thomas Bell
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of British reptiles / [Thomas Bell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    carbonic acid when in contact with the atmosphere ; but the subject had never undergone that strict and philosophical in¬ vestigation by which all its important bearings should be ascertained, until Dr. William Edwards of Paris entered upon the inquiry, the results of which he published in his admirable work 44 On the Influence of Physical Agents on Life than which there does not exist in the whole range of physiological literature a more perfect example of the manner in which a physiological inquiry ought to be imagined, planned, and conducted, and its results reasoned upon, and described. As I have endeavoured in the article already quoted, to give a short sketch of the principal results of Dr. Edwards’s expe¬ riments, I shall now merely offer a somewhat modified quo¬ tation from that article, rather than enter at length into the detail, which, however interesting the subject may be to the physiologist, would be out of place in the present work, and would be unnecessary to those who alone could appreciate it; for where is the physiologist who has not read and admired the original work itself? The existence of cutaneous respiration in the Frog was proved by the simple experiment of tying a piece of bladder over the head so tightly as to prevent the possibility of com¬ munication with the lungs, so as indeed to produce complete strangulation. The Frogs were then placed under water ; and on examining the air contained in the vessel after an hour or two, a sensible quantity of carbonic acid was detected. On placing Frogs in vessels filled respectively with river water, and with water which had been deprived of air by boiling, and inverted over the apertures contained in the shelf of a pneumatic trough, containing about ninety-eight pints, those in the latter lived on the average little more than half as long as those in the aerated water. On trying the effects of submersion under stagnant water frequently re¬ newed they lived two months and a half, and then died from
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