754 MAGNUS ON THE GASES IN THE BLOOD.

Commissioners to be examined before the

Committee, a narrative of the evils whichhave overtaken the poor under his " care"

must be drawn up, and a detailed account

of cases neglected, mistreated, or brought to

a fatal termination under his inauspiciousinfluence, should be forwarded to London

by the neighbouring observers and practi-tioners ; and in some cases it may be righteven to send the maimed and the blind, thewidows and the orphans, who have fallenvictims of rashness and neglect, to confrontthe witness who has dared to undertake

duties on impracticable terms, and does not ’’

shrink from attempting to justify his con-

duct.

This part of the inquiry will be exceed-ingly painful. It may be rendered unneces-

sary, if the Poor-Law Commissioners pru-

dently yield to the justice of the arrange-ment which may be suggested and deve-loped by the previous evidence. It will,indeed, be only with the greatest regret thatwe shall see established, on evidence, a longcatalogue of abuses, hardships, and suffer-

, ings, committed under the sanction of thePoor-Law Amendment Act, and calculated to

stamp eternal disgrace on its administration.

POOR-LAW COMMITTEE.

THE Select Committee of the House ofCommons, on the Poor-Law AmendmentAct, have had several meetings since its re-appointment in the present Parliament, butup to the close of the meeting on the 14th ofFebruary, the examination of witnesses hadnot been particularly directed to any part ofthe medical branch of the inquiry. Mr. Fa-

zakerly is in the chair, and no medical evi-dence had been given, excepting at the closeof Mr. Gulson’s examination on the 14th.The Committee consists of the followingtwenty-one members :- ,

Mr. BainesBarnebyBollingChichesterEstcourt (Dev.)FazakerlvJ. FieldenFreshfield

Sir T. FremantleMr. L. HodgesLord Howick

Mr. LiddellListerMiles

Lord J. RussellMr. P. Scrope

SlaneyVilliersWakleyR. WalkerWard.

MAGNUS ON THE GASES CONTAINED IN

THE BLOOD.

OXYGEN, NITROGEN, AND CARBONIC ACID.*

THE paper of our correspondent, Mr. Squire,is a satisfactory reply to Muller’s criticism;but the subject has been further investigatedsince the papers of Dr. Stevens appeared;and Magnus has shown not only that thevenous blood contains carbonic acid, but thatthis gas exists with oxygen and nitrogen,in arterial blood, thus rendering the chainof investigation complete. The satisfactoryresults obtained by this distinguished che-mist induce us to lay an abstract of hispaper before our readeis.

Magnus passed through blood a currentof hydrogen gas, previously washed with asolution of potash and lime-water. As theblood became very frothy in this experi.ment, the vessel in which it was containedwas made to communicate with a largervessel, which received the foam. A con.stant current was thus kept up, and at lastpassed into lime-water, which, after thelapse of a certain time, became opake.

The result was the same whether theblood was immediately excluded from theair on leaving the vein, or collected over

mercury by a tube introduced into the jugn.lar vein of a horse.When nitrogen was substituted for hydro.

gen, carbonic acid was exhaled from theblood in the same circumstances; and finally,lime-water was rendered turbid by the gasexhaled from blood under the air-pump,at a pressure, not capable of supportingmore than an inch of mercury.The author infers that carbonic acid exists

in venous blood before it reaches the lungs,and that it is not produced there by theoxidation of carbon.

I Magnus endeavoured to determine the

proportion of carbonic acid which may beseparated from the blood, by causing it to

disengage with hydrogen, and absorbing itwith caustic potash in Leibig’s apparatus.He did not succeed in ascertaining the pre-cise quantity of this gas in the blood, as heonly succeeded once in carrying on the ex.periment, without the blood becoming pu.trid, till hydrogen no longer carried over

carbonic acid. His experiments, however,induce him to admit, that the blood contains,at least, one-fifth of its volume of carbonicacid. He obtained the following results:-

* Journal de Pharmacie, Dec. 1837.