Effects of Carbon Dioxide in the Heart and Circulation

Abstract

IN his presidential address to the Physiology Section of the thirty-first Indian Science Congress held in January, Dr. S. N. Mathur discussed the physiological importance of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide has generally been regarded as a toxic waste product which the body seeks to eliminate as rapidly as possible, but it is now well recognized that it has certain beneficial actions as well. Originally a necessary evil, it has, in the course of evolution, so inextricably worked its way into the body machinery that it has come to be indispensable for certain physiological processes. The necessity of carbon dioxide for maintaining the pH of the blood and the activity of the respiratory centre is, of course, well known; its importance for the proper working of the cardio-vascular system is less well appreciated, and this field, in which Dr. Mathur has made important observations, may be worth a brief review.