302 CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE 



them from my pocket required an effort which I was 

 unable to make. At this height I wrote, nevertheless, 

 in my notebook almost mechanically, and reproduce 

 literally the following words, though I have no very 

 clear recollection of writing them. They are written 

 very illegibly by a hand rendered very shaky by the 

 cold : My hands are frozen. I am well. We are 

 well. Haze on the horizon, with small rounded cir- 

 rus. We are raising. Croce is panting. We breathe 

 oxygen. Sivel shuts his eyes. Croce also shuts his 

 eyes. I empty aspirator. 1.20 P.M., 11, Bar. 320. 

 Sivel is dozing. 1.25 11, Bar. = 300. Sivel throws 

 ballast. Sivel throws ballast. (The last words are 

 scarcely legible.) ... I had taken care to keep ab- 

 solutely still, without suspecting that I had already 

 perhaps lost the use of my limbs. At about 7,500 

 meters (Bar. 300 mm.) the condition of torpor which 

 comes over one is extraordinary. Body and mind 

 become feebler little by little, gradually and insen- 

 sibly. There is no suffering. On the contrary one 

 feels an inward joy. There is no thought of the 

 dangerous position ; one rises and is glad to be rising. 

 The vertigo of high altitudes is not an empty word ; 

 but so far as I can judge from my own impressions 

 this vertigo appears at the last moment, and immedi- 

 ately precedes extinction, sudden, unexpected and ir- 

 resistible. ... I soon felt myself so weak that I 

 could not even turn my head to look at my compan- 

 ions. I wished to take hold of the oxygen tube, but 

 found that I could not move my arms. My mind was 

 still clear, however, and I watched the aneroid with 

 my eyes fixed on the needle, which soon pointed to 

 290 mm. and then to 280. I wished to call out that 

 we were now at 8,000 meters; but my tongue was 

 paralyzed. All at once I shut my eyes and fell down 

 powerless, and lost all further memory. It was about 

 1.30. 



