Abstract
SIR LEONARD HiLL1 suggests that whales' blood should not become supersaturated with nitrogen since there is not enough air in the lungs. I have observed that Blue and Fin whales spend the vast majority of their lives submerged—at what depth we may never know—and that their sojourns at the surface are usually momentary. The result is that while the decompressed state of the whale lasts only for a few seconds in every ten to twenty minutes, the compressed state predominates. Therefore there is a constant passage of nitrogen into the blood and very little opportunity for it to return into the lungs. Supersaturation is bound to occur if the whale's dive is sufficiently deep.
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Hill, L., NATURE, 135, 657; April 27, 1935.
Laurie, A. H., NATURE, 132, 135, July 22, 1933.
Laurie, A. H., “Some Aspects of Respiration in Blue and Fin Whales”, Discovery Reports, 7, 363–406, 1933.
Krogh, A., “Physiology of the Blue Whale”, NATURE, 133, 635, 1934.
Campbell, J. Argyll, NATURE, 134, 629, Oct. 20, 1934.
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LAURIE, A. Physiology of Whales. Nature 135, 823 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135823a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135823a0
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