We likewise perceive from this, that the true use of respiration is to bring sufficient fresh air into the lungs, to cause the blood which flows into them from the right ventricle of the heart, where it has been rarefied and, as it were, changed into vapours, to become thick, and to convert it anew into blood, before it flows into the left cavity, without which process it would be unfit for the nourishment of the fire that is there.
Nothing Worthy of Note Transpired Today (archive.org) The transcribed journals of Civil War General August Valentine Kautz that detail his daily life and activities during his post at Fort Steilacoom in 1850.
https://archive.org/details/nothing-worthy-of-note-transpired-today-the-northwest-journals-of-august-v.-kautz/page/n5/mode/2up