94 Historical 



The next morning, they continued to climb: 



M. Molinatti, exhausted by the rarity of the air, was forced to stop 

 constantly, whereas MM. Vincent seemed to have wings, eager as they 

 were to reach the summit first; Zumstein, about fifty steps behind, 

 followed them panting, but soon overtook them. 



Thus they reached the summit of Zumstein's Point (4560 

 meters) , and descended without trouble. 



The other ascents of Zumstein, in 1821 and 1822, had no inci- 

 dents which would interest us. 130 



We note, therefore, in this ascent, evident physiological disturb- 

 ances, although less than those which the travellers to Mont Blanc 

 had reported. 



Much less still are those observed by Hugi, 131 who goes so far 

 as to deny even the acceleration of the pulse rate on lofty places, 

 which seems rather strange. 



The greatest elevation reached by this traveller and his com- 

 panions was the Finsteraarhorn (4275 meters) : 



At these elevations I never failed (he says) to observe the pulse 

 rate, the respiratory rate, and the temperature of the body. The results 

 were constant; that is, in these respects heights and planes show the 

 same results, when neither effort, nor fatigue, nor fear are involved. 

 I am omitting the table of observations. Wahren alone, who is noted 

 for his vigor all through the Oberland, felt a little nausea on the point 

 of the Finsteraarhorn. While he was working at the Pyramid, he 

 twice lost power of vision, so that he was forced to sit down. (P. 218.) 



On the opposite side, Hipp. Cloquet KJ - states that the symptoms 

 of decompression are often felt, even at the low elevation of the 

 Grand Saint-Bernard: 



The rarefaction of the air .... causes in the organs of respiration 

 an alteration strange enough to be mentioned. Persons with a strong 

 constitution and with lungs in perfect condition experience a certain 

 pleasure in breathing an air as cool as it is pure and light; on the 

 contrary, those who lack these advantages, and especially those who 

 are asthmatic, experience a marked distress and an extreme difficulty 

 in breathing, when they visit the monastery and its surroundings. 

 At the Saint-Bernard travellers have been seen to be asphyxiated, so 

 to speak, for want of air, and to fall in a faint, without any other 

 known cause, and this happens often to weak and delicate persons. 

 At the beginning of the syncope, the pulse rate is very high; but the 

 greater the strength of the lungs, the less is this acceleration in the 

 pulse rate. 



It is also to the rarity of the air that we should perhaps attribute 

 a strange phenomenon presented by the observation of wounds in this 

 place. Their cicatrization requires double or even triple the time it 



