ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE AND LIFE. 



323 



the results of that one of my experiments in which I reached the low- 

 est degree of pressure. My pulse had grown more frequent, having 

 risen from 60 to 85 ; the pressure was then only 40 centimetres. I 

 now began to inhale oxygen from the bag, and at once the pulse fell 

 to 65, at which point it stood during the remainder of the experi- 

 ment, and at last even fell to 48. In the mean while the pressure had 

 fallen to 246 millimetres. This is exactly the pressure on the highest 



summit of the Himalaya the same degree of pressure which was so 

 near proving fatal to Glaisher and Coxwell ; I reached this point 

 without the slightest sense of discomfort, or, to speak more accurately, 

 the unpleasant sensations I felt at the beginning had entirely disap- 

 peared, A bird in the cylinder with me was leaning on one side, and 

 very sick. It was my wish to continue the experiment till the bird 

 died, but the steam-pump, conspiring, as I suspect, with the people 



