Lavoisier's findings lead way to several other researchers.

Which gas do you think is Lavoisier talking about when he says chalky acid gas?

Which gas according to him is respirable air?

What steps in the process of respiration does Lavoisier mention as an inference of his experiments?

A few lines from a textbook of Human Physiology, written by a renowned chemist, John Daper around mid-19th century goes like this..

"The chief materials which a living being receives are matter that can be burnt, water and oxygen gas; and out of the action of these upon one another, all the physical phenomena of its life arise. What the body expels out is water, oxide of carbon, phosphorous, sulphur and others."

Thus, we can see that the role of major compounds and elements in the process of respiration was known by mid19thcentury. The events involved were not very clearly understood, but, people believed that there was some relationship of the heat produced in the body and the process of respiration.

It is a common observation that our breath is warmer than the air around us; does respiration have anything to do with this? Let us study the events involved in respiration in human beings to figure it out

There are no strict demarcations of events involved in the process of respiration. It is a very complex process of several biochemical and physical processes. But for a general understanding on what goes on, we shall study under the following head