hen the blood stream is freighted with a
soluble chemical of some sort--let us say, for the present, with
alcohol--this medicated blood will exert its greatest chemical effect
where the tension--the pressure--is greatest, that is, in the
cerebro-spinal canal. The reason for this is found in the fact that
endosmosis is most pronounced where the blood pressure is greatest.
This explanation of why the effects of alcohol are enhanced by
exposing the individual who has taken it to the effects of a condensed
atmosphere will, I believe, appeal to the physiological conceptions of
most medical men. It was the above course of reasoning which, at this
stage of the argument, led me to the idea that, just as the effects of
stimulating substances are enhanced by exposing the subject to the
influence of compressed air, so, inversely, sedatives and analgesics,
when brought in solution into the blood stream, either hypodermically
or by the stomach, might be greatly enhanced in effect by causing the
subject to remain, while under their influence, in a condensed
atmosphere.

When I came to investigate the validity of these predictions, as I did
shortly after the introduction of antipyrin, phenacetin, and the other
members of the same group of compounds, I found my predictions
verified, and, indeed, exceeded. To summarize the whole matter, I
ascertained that not only could therapeutic effects be obtained from
much smaller doses by exposing the subject to the influence of a
condensed atmosphere, but, what was of equal interest, I found that
the analgesic influence of the remedies was much more permanent, was
prolonged, in short, by this mode of administration. When we consider
how great must be the nutritive changes in the nervous system, and
especially in the cerebro-spinal axis, consequent upon increasing the
blood pressure in this way, I hardly think that these things should be
matters of astonishment.

CONCERNING THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE FOREGOING FACTS.--Truths
like the foregoing possess, however, much more than a theoretical
interest, and we should be greatly lacking in perspicuity did we not
seek to derive from them something further than a foundation for mere
speculation. Indeed, the whole tenor of these facts is opposed to such
a course, for, view them as we may, the thought inevitably arises that
here are things which contain the germ of some practical acquisition.
This, at least, is the impression which they engendere