The Oxygen Secretion Controversy (1906–1910)

Abstract

In his long association with William Sørensen, August had rather enjoyed the challenge arising from scientific controversies. Now, as his time in Bohr’s laboratory was nearing its end, he found himself unintentionally caught in an emotionally charged scientific controversy with his own mentor. This conflict not only affected him deeply, but also was decisive in shaping his future research which in turn led to some of his most important discoveries. In an address given to the XIII International Congress of Physiological Sciences in 1929, Krogh clearly referred to this experience:

We may fondly imagine that we are impartial seekers after truth, but with very few exceptions, to which I know I do not belong, we are influenced, and sometimes strongly, by our personal bias and we give our best thoughts to those ideas which we have to defend. Nevertheless we should of course all do our best to avoid controversy, in the sense that we should take every possible care to verify our facts and substantiate our conclusions before we publish our results.¹

The absorption of oxygen and the elimination of carbon dioxide in the lungs takes place by diffusion and by diffusion alone. There is no trustworthy evidence of any regulation of this process on the part of the organism.