Abstract
ON the interesting subject of the need for oxygen on Mount Everest, Prof J. Barcroft has made the remark, before Section I of the British Association, that the whole matter is now merely “an engineer's problem”: the problem of designing a light and efficient oxygen breathing apparatus. This point of view is ably supported by Prof. Margaria.1 There is, however, something more: namely, the disadvantage of acclimatisation in a man using such apparatus. If it is one of the ‘open circuit’ type, acclimatised breathing causes a huge waste of oxygen and adds correspondingly to the difficulty of transportation. Yet a man dare not relinquish this physiological condition, even if he could. For if he relinquished it, he would die of asphyxia as soon as he took the apparatus off.
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References
Margaria, R., NATURE, 129, 397, March 12, 1932.
Douglas, Haldane, Henderson and Schneider, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., B, 203, 185; Feb. 7, 1913.
Henderson, Y., NATURE, 117, 747; May 29, 1926.
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HENDERSON, Y. Oxygen and Everest. Nature 129, 649–650 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129649c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129649c0
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