II. Report of the monte rosa expedition of 1911

Abstract

The work undertaken by this expedition arose out of that which was done in Teneritfe by Barcroft (1) on the properties of the dissociation curve of human blood at various altitudes. The results arrived at by Barcroft were that, in spite of obvious alterations in the alveolar pressure of CO ₂ at 7000 and 11,000 feet, the dissociation curve of the individual remained unaltered. This could only be the case if some other acid was thrust into the blood to replace the CO ₂ which had left it. It seemed, therefore, desirable to test for such an acidosis on Monte Rosa; this was carried out by Mathison and Roberts. The first portion of our work, then, deals with the verification of the results obtained in Teneriffe and the extension of them which has been indicated.