Abstract
THE point raised by Capt. Damant is certainly important. I have not found it possible to conjure up a mental picture of the whale's thorax and lungs compressed to one tenth or less, and it becomes especially difficult when the air passages are taken into account, since these must take up an increasing proportion of the total quantity of air available. If the compression fails to interfere with the circulation, I do not think that the diffusion of nitrogen or oxygen will be very seriously impaired. M. Krogh found1 that the diffusion in human lungs became independent of the volume when this was diminished below a certain point and explained this by the folding of the alveolar walls. Such folding must take place to a very large extent in the lungs of the diving whale.
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J. Physiol., 49; 1915.
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KROGH, A. Physiology of Deep Diving in the Whale. Nature 133, 874 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133874b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133874b0
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