GEOFFROY SAINT-HILAIRE ÉTIENNE (1772-1844) NA... Lot n° 113

MANUSCRIT autograph signed at the head "M. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire", On the organ and gases of respiration in the fetus; 12 pages in-4. Important scientific study. He has been involved for a long time in research on respiration in the fetus: he refers in particular to a memoir read at the Cairo Institute in 1801, to his Philosophy of Anatomy, etc. His work has as its fundamental proposition: "no organization without the combination of an assimilable fluid, and no assimilation without prior oxigenation or respiration". His work has for fundamental proposition: "no organization without the combination of an assimilable fluid, and no assimilation without a prior oxigenation or respiration"... He explains how the mother's uterus fulfills for the fetus the functions that the right ventricle and the diaphragm provide after birth, and how the mammalian fetuses have three kinds of successive respiratory organs... The fetus contained in the uterus is in a condition similar to that of a fish in water... The scientist summarizes his researches in collaboration with two distinguished chemists, cHevreul and lassaiGne, first on a sow, then on a cow; he gives the analysis of gases in the amnion of these animals, and attacks the objections of Mr. Rolando... He speaks of "elective affinities of the organic elements" and concludes that the respiratory organs housed inside the animals and those spread outside "are very certainly of different structure: they are therefore not analogous. Those are called lungs, and those, gills"...