ADDENDA.
Sphygmographic tracings of the pulse of the essayist. Normal pulse 60 to the minute. Ten seconds necessary for the slip to pass under the instrument.
A, A¹, normal pulse.
B, pulse taken after breathing rapidly for 15 seconds when
20 respirations had been taken.
C, rapid breathing for 30 seconds, 43 respirations.
D, " " 45 " 76 "
E, " " 60 " 96 "
F, pulse taken after rapid breathing for one minute, as in E, where no respiration had as yet been taken after the essayist had kept it up for that one minute. This was after 10 seconds had intervened.
G, the same taken 50 seconds after, and still no respiration had been taken, the subject having no disposition to inhale, the blood having been over oxygenated.
The pulse in E shows after 96 respirations but 14, or 84 per minute, and the force nearly as in the normal at A, A1.
The record in B shows the force more markedly, but still normal in number.
F and G show very marked diminution in the force, but the number of pulsations not over 72 per minute; G particularly so, the heart needing the stimulus of the oxygen for full power.
The following incident which has but very recently been made known, gives most conclusive evidence of the truth of the theory and practice of rapid breathing.
A Mexican went into the office of a dentist in one of the Mexican cities to have a tooth extracted by nitrous oxide gas.
The dentist was not in, and the assistant was about to permit the patient to leave without removing the tooth, when the wife of the proprietor exclaimed that she had often assisted her husband in giving the gas, and that she would do so in this instance if the assistant would agree to extract the tooth. It was agreed. All being in readiness, the lady turned on as she supposed the gas, and the Mexican patient was ordered to breathe as fast as possible to make sure of the full effect and no doubt of the final success. The assistant was about to extract, but the wife insisted on his breathing more rapidly, whereupon the patient was observed to become very dark or purple in the face, which satisfied the lady that the full effect was manifested, and the tooth was extracted, to the great satisfaction of all concerned. While the gas was being taken by the Mexican the gasometer was noticed to rise higher and higher as the patient breathed faster, and not to sink as was usual when the gas had been previously administered. This led to an investigation of the reason of such an anomalous result, when to their utter surprise they found the valve was so turned by the wife that the Mexican had been breathing nothing but common air, and instead of exhaling into the surrounding air he violently forced it into the gasometer with the nitrous oxide gas, causing it to rise and not sink, which it should have done had the valve been properly turned by the passage of gas into the lungs of the patient.
No more beautiful and positive trial could happen, and might not again by accident or inadvertence happen again in a lifetime.