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MICROSCOPICAL INVESTIGATION. 361
•of a clearer colour than venous blood. The Iatrophysicists
such as MALPIGHI, PITCAIRN, and others explained the
phenomenon by saying that in consequence of the inspired
air the blood is subjected to a finer division, while the Iatrochemists
ascribed a chemical influence to the air. The
attempts to come to a conclusion as to what constituent
part of the air it is which produces this effect w-ere naturally
unsuccessful. R. BATHURST and N. HENSHAW expressed
an opinion that it was the same substance that has a prominent
place in the composition of nitric acid. The real
-action of air upon blood was more closely examined by D.
MlSTlCHELLi. He inflated the lungs of dying animals with
air, and in this way was able, not only to cause the blood to
change colour, but at the same time to revive the movements
•of the heart.* About the same time PEYER and HARDER
instituted experiments with the hearts of dead animals
and of men who had been hanged, and restored cardiac
movements by inflating the lungs with air.f
SANTORIO, who made himself known by the invention of
various physical instruments,^ wished to determine the
relation between the ingesta and excreta of the body, and
with this object during 30 years submitted the nourishment
he took and the refuse material which passed from him to
-accurate weighing; he then compared the results with his
body-weight, and found that a portion of the nourishment
taken leaves the body in the invisible form of gas and vapour
(perspiratio insensibilis).\ DENYS DODART repeated these
-experiments, and remarked that with increasing age the
visible excretory products are increased. The processes
of digestion, nutrition, and secretion were judged of in
•quite different ways by the Iatrophysicists and the Iatrochemists.
While the former embraced the opinion that
* Philosophical experiments and observations of ROB. HOOKE, etc., published
•by W. DERHAM, London 1726, p. 372 et seq.
t PEYER : Parerga anatom. et medica, Genev. 1681, p. 198.
X K. SPRENGEL op. tit. iv, 422 et seq.
§ SANCT. SANCTORIUS: De statica medicina, Venet. 1614, Sect. 1.