The Regina Margherita Observatory

Abstract

THE investigation of the physiological phenomena which present themselves when man ascends to high altitudes is as fascinating as the results are, or promise to be, important. The fascination and the importance are connected with the complexity of the problems which have to be dealt with. The effect on respiration due to the diminished oxygen of the rarefied air, so far from being the one thing to be studied, as the casual observer might suppose, is perhaps not even the chief thing. Of still greater importance, probably, are the manifold effects of diminished pressure on all the tissues and organs of the body, on the vascular system in all its parts, peripheral and central, and the far-reaching secondary results of the changes in the circulation thus brought about. These are further complicated by the influence of variations in temperature and in the qualities of the sun's rays.