106 Master Minds of Modern Science 



soon calmed down, and he felt better. But he began to 

 wonder at his companion ; his lips were purple, and he 

 was making silly jokes and trying to sing. Haldane found 

 that he could not stand without support. 



His companion suggested a whiff of oxygen from a 

 cylinder they had with them, and to humour him Haldane 

 took a few breaths. The result was startling. The 

 electric light seemed to become so brilliant that it looked 

 as if the fuse would melt, while the noise of the pumping 

 engine apparently increased fourfold. At the end of half 

 an hour the pumping ceased and the prisoners were 

 set free, none the worse save for a slight headache. But 

 Mr Haldane states that his notebook, which should 

 have contained records of his pulse beat, was full of state- 

 ments — very illegible statements — to the effect that he 

 was feeling much better, but that he believed his com- 

 panion to be drunk. 



Oxygen, it seems, is the only cure for mountain sickness. 

 General Bruce's party carried oxygen cylinders during 

 their ascent of Mount Everest. But the effect on those 

 who take oxygen under such conditions is to make them 

 oddly quarrelsome. One of the few residents at the 

 summit of Pike's Peak, an American mountain greatly 

 favoured by the tourist, is a sheriff who finds plenty of 

 work in dealing with quarrelsome visitors. Above sixteen 

 thousand feet oxygen is almost a necessity; it was 

 always supplied during the War to the crews of high- 

 flying bombing machines and airships. Oxygen, says 

 Mr Haldane, has a great future as medicine, and 

 properly administered it may halve the death-rate from 

 pneumonia. But it must be given continuously, perhaps 

 for as long as three days and nights on end, and it must 

 not be breathed pure, for in that state it is a slow poison. 



A subject in which Mr Haldane takes great interest 

 is ' water-poisoning.' It sounds perhaps rather absurd 

 to talk of poisoning by pure water, yet this is quite pos- 



