des Agens Physiques 3ur la Vie, 311 



M. Delaroche could not remain more than ten minutes 

 and a half in a vapour bath at 37° 5 cent., increased in 

 eight minutes to 51° 25' cent., and subsequently lowered one 

 degree. M. Berger was obliged to get out of a vapour bath 

 at a temperature between 41° 25' to 53° 75',in twelve minutes 

 and a half. He was much weakened, tottered on his limbs, and 

 was affected with giddiness ; and these symptoms continued 

 some time. Yet both these persons sustained equal and 

 superior temperatures in dry air during a much longer time, 

 and without any remarkable inconvenience. The sensation 

 in damp air is more intense, and resembles that of contact 

 with boiling water. It is said, that the peasantry of Finland 

 can remain upwards of half an hour in a vapour bath heated 

 to 70° or 75° cent. It is evident, that a bath of hot water, 

 at the same heat, will produce a much more powerful in- 

 fluence upon the animal economy. 



M. Delaroche sought to ascertain what increase the tem- 



ferature of the body acquires under certain degrees of heat, 

 n a vapour bath, heated from 37° 5' to 48° 75' cent., the 

 temperature of the body was raised by 3° 12' cent., as indi- 

 cated in the mouth. On M. Berger making the same trial 

 with vapour at from 40° to 41° 25', the temperature of his 

 body acquired 1° 87' in fifteen minutes. But this object is 

 better achieved by experiments on animals of warm blood 

 than on man. Accordingly, different species of mammiferse 

 were placed in an oven heated to 93° 75' cent. Notwith- 

 standing the variety of species, birds, &c. inclosed in dry 

 air, heated as stated above, all of them acquired nearly the 

 same increase of temperature ; we may, therefore, fairly infer, 

 from results so uniform, that man and warm-blooded animals, 

 under the influence of excessive heat in dry air, cannot, during 

 life, sustain an elevation of vital temperature beyond 7° or 8° 

 cent. In the cases of the animals last-mentioned, they all died. 

 These results are not applicable in like manner to cold-blooded 

 animals ; 40° 93' cent, is the greatest degree of heat which 

 these were found to reach at the period of their death. 



The last physical agent which our author notices, is that 

 of light, and its influence is considered in a two-fold point 

 of view, physically and vitally ; for such is its effect upon 

 animal bodies in their living state. This chapter is equally 

 interesting to the pathologist and the natural philosopher. 

 Light will be found, in practice, to be among the curative 

 means of many disorders. The uncovered parts of the 

 human body receive the action of luminous matter, which is 



