Open AccessVIII. The changes in the breathing and the blood at various high altitudes
Author(s) -
Mabel Purefoy FitzGerald
Publication year - 1913
Publication title -
philosophical transactions of the royal society of london. series b, containing papers of a biological character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9266
pISSN - 0264-3960
DOI - 10.1098/rstb.1913.0008
Subject(s) - pike , altitude (triangle) , effects of high altitude on humans , ventilation (architecture) , sea level , meteorology , geography , physical geography , biology , mathematics , geometry , fishery , fish <actinopterygii>
In connection with the Anglo-American Pike’s Peak Expedition (1911), and simultaneously with the work on the summit of Pike’s Peak, Colorado, U. S. A., the following experiments were made in Colorado during the months of July and August, 1911, at altitudes varying from 5000 to 12,500 feet, for the purpose of determining the changes in the alveolar air and in the percentage of hæmoglobin in the blood of persons residing permanently at such heights. Haldane and Priestley showed that normally the lung ventilation is so regulated as to maintain during rest a definite mean alveolar carbonic acid pressure, and it is known that at high altitudes the breathing is regulated to a lower alveolar CO2 pressure than is the case at sea-level. It is also known that an increase in the percentage of hæmoglobin occurs with a rise in altitude.