Absorption of oxygen from the peritoneal cavity and the stomach

Abstract

1. In the decapitated cat the lungs are about twenty times more efficient in absorbing oxygen than is the peritoneal cavity filled (500 c.c.) with pure oxygen; and about fifty times more efficient than the stomach containing 100 c.c. of oxygen. In a previous research the whole subcutaneous region gave results similar to the peritoneal cavity [Singh, 1932]. 2. In human subjects living in Rangoon the pulse-rate in the prone position is always higher than in the supine position. This is perhaps a climatic effect (Appendix I). 3. The cat's stomach when filled with 100 c.c. saline apparently slows the flow of fluid through the inferior vena cava when the animal is in the supine position (Appendix II).