72 Historical 



toms which certain travellers say they experienced on the summit of 

 Etna; those symptoms must have been an effect of their poor physical 

 condition. We all felt very well. In his balloon, at the height of 21,482 

 feet, Gay-Lussac was in good shape. (P. 21.) 



The French traveller De Gourbillon, 89 who made the ascent 

 October 10, 1819, felt no effects himself; but that was not true of his 

 travelling companions: 



M. Wilson experienced strange symptoms; his face, naturally ruddy, 

 was wan and pale, almost entirely livid. Though younger and more 

 nimble, and though he had not suffered as much from the volcanic 

 exhalations, which had produced upon the latter and even upon the 

 guide an effect like that of seasickness, my other travelling companion 

 seemed neither fresher nor less distressed. . . . Lazarus, when he left 

 the tomb, was no paler. (P. 436.) 



Likewise, Count de Forbin, 90 who mounted to the crater the 

 following year, was in very bad condition: 



I was hardly halfway from the Tower of the Philosopher to the 

 summit, and already I was thoroughly disheartened. The rarefaction of 

 the air made breathing difficult; later, the oppression became very great, 

 it acted so much upon one of our travelling companions that he fainted. 

 He was revived, and summoning all our strength, we reached the high- 

 est crest of the crater after an hour and a half. 



Never in my life had I felt such fatigue; . . . my first impression 

 was that I was like an invalid, prostrated, distressed by the terrors of a 

 feverish brain .... Weariness of the senses and excitement of the 

 imagination reduced us to a state nearly like delirium. (P. 173.) 



About the same time, A. de Sayve made this ascent. The results 

 of it were told in a very interesting manner by H. Cloquet, who 

 made use of it to prove the effect of great heights upon the organ- 

 ism. He reported it to the Societe Philomathique in the following 

 words: 91 



In the month of January, 1820, M. H. Cloquet published some 

 details about the medical topography of Mont St. Bernard, and ideas 

 about the effect which a stay on the towering crests of lofty mountains 

 has upon man . . . 



In spite of these data, a celebrated author of our time, M. Ferrara, 

 thought that only persons in poor health were inconvenienced while 

 ascending to the summit of Etna, in Sicily. A careful observer, M. 

 Auguste de Sayve, visited this famous place in the month of May, 

 1821, and disagrees with the learned M. Ferrara in this point. Here 

 are the principal results of the observations which he made, and M. 

 Cloquet considers that these results support what he has said .... 



At the snow limit is the little plain called Piano del jrumento, at 

 the beginning of which are the ruins . . . known by the name of the 

 Tower oj the Philosopher . . . Even before reaching this point, M. de 



