Mountain Journeys 71 



mineralogist was very severely affected, and his guide still more 

 than he: 



The cold was cutting . . . often breath failed me, and I was forced 

 to stop short to get my breath, and to prevent strong palpitations which 

 I felt in the pulmonary arteries. . . . My guide constantly called to me 

 to walk more slowly, and when I reached the plain, near the Tower of 

 the Philosopher,* he told me that he could go no further, that he felt 

 very ill, and in fact, a moment afterwards, he fell unconscious, the 

 pallor of death on his face, and in a most pitiful state. ... A few drops 

 of wine made him revive a little; but he was very weak and like a man 

 about to die. (P. 98.) 



Dolomieu continued his journey alone and reached the crater 

 without mentioning any real sufferings in his account; he speaks 

 only of his fatigue. 



The report left us by Spallanzani of his ascent on September 3, 

 1788, is interesting particularly because of the record he gives of 

 the remarks of travellers who preceded him: 



The rarefaction of the air on the summit of Etna did not produce 

 upon me the same effects as those experienced by some of the travel- 

 lers who had preceded me. Chevalier Hamilton (September 26, 1769) 

 felt his respiration hampered by the great thinness of the air; Count 

 Borch (October 16, 1776) was still more distressed; "the rarefaction of 

 the air on this mountain (he says) is very great, so great that the air 

 is hardly suited for breathing." Riedesel (1767), on the contrary, felt 

 no effects, or hardly any, as we see by this sentence: "I did not per- 

 ceive that the air was so rarefied as several travellers state, nor so thin 

 as to prevent breathing, or even to hamper respiration very much." 

 Brydone (May 27, 1770) does not mention it, and I concluded from his 

 silence that the thinness of the air did not tire him much. 



As for me, my servant, and my two guides, the air gave us no 

 trouble. The difficulty of climbing . . . made our respiration painful 

 and hurried, it is true; but after we had reached the summit, after 

 resting a little, we soon regained our strength, and even while walking, 

 we had no further difficulty in breathing. (P. 272.) 37 



The illustrious physiologist did not show his usual acuteness 

 there; he could not distinguish, as Borelli had done one hundred 

 years before, between the effects of walking and those in a resting 

 condition, and whatever he says, we can easily see that the air gave 

 him real, though slight, disturbances. 



Ferrara, 88 in his description of Etna, goes farther. According to 

 him, not only did the ascent cause no distress, but he breathed with 

 greater ease in this pure air: 



The lessened density of the air, no less than its extreme purity," 

 produced a full and free respiration. . . . We felt none of those symp- 



