ANOXEMIA, OR OXYGEN DEFICIENCY, AND ABNORMAL RESPIRATION IN CERTAIN DISEASES

It commonly happens that when an important discovery is made in some field of science, as for example when a cause for a familiar phenomenon is ascertained, attention is at once diverted toward this to the exclusion of all other explanations or possible contributory causes. This has been the experience in the study of the regulation of respiration. Fifteen years ago the nervous mechanism of regulation, particularly the so-called Hering-Breuer reflex, was the predominant feature of all discussions of respiratory function. No sooner, however, had Haldane and Priestley¹ given their classic demonstration, in 1905, of the fundamental dominance of chemical factors in the control of breathing than they became the center of interest. Although in the earlier days the stimulus to augmented respiration was sought in a lack of oxygen, it has been recognized for some time, as the result of Haldane and Priestley's work, that ordinarily the respiration