108 Historical 



At six o'clock in the morning, we were in the Corridor (3,990 

 meters) ; the thermometer marked — 8°C. We had hardly been there 

 five minutes when a strong desire to sleep seized us, and conquered 

 me completely. My respiration was very painful; my eyes blinked, 

 I had buzzings in my ears, headache, nausea; soon I vomited repeat- 

 edly; Balmat was as much affected as I, and his desire to sleep was 

 so great that he lay down on the snow, and I immediately let myself 

 fall beside him. 



"I cannot go any further without sleeping a half-hour", I said to 

 Balmat .... I fell into a lethargic sleep, interrupted by smothering 

 spells, which finally seemed dangerous to Balmat; and so he began to 

 stir me and shake me, without being able to awaken me. Fifteen 

 minutes passed. His shouts awoke me, and he said to me: "You cannot 

 stay here any longer, you must go on". Perspiration covered my face; 

 I rubbed my face with snow, and after a score of deep breaths, I felt 

 better .... 



From my sensations on the glacier, it is evident that the effect of 

 mountain air was evidenced in me very definitely; it produces dang- 

 erous congestions .... 



On our return, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the same 

 symptoms appeared in the same place, but with much less intensity: 

 headache, nausea, vomiting. 



The expedition of Dr. Piachaud, 14S July 26, 1864, gave results 

 just as interesting. The author gave heed to the physiological 

 phenomena experienced by his companions and himself, and "attri- 

 buted to the rarity of the air": 



The chief symptom (he says) is the oppression, which hardly 

 exists when one is resting, but which appears as soon as one starts 

 walking, then stops again when one halts. From it there results the 

 necessity of increasing the number of inspirations, and thence such a 

 fatigue that one is forced to halt every twenty or twenty-five steps. 

 This fatigue, moreover, is not like that one feels as the result of a 

 long walk; it is not the legs which are chiefly affected; it takes 

 possession of the whole system; there is a sort of general depression 

 both mental and physical. I should add that this peculiar condition is 

 observed only during the ascent, for once I had reached the summit 

 and during the descent, I felt nothing of the sort. Another noteworthy 

 effect of the rarity of the air is sleepiness, which I could hardly 

 resist; I felt that if I had stretched out on the snow, or if I had been 

 alone, I should have gone to sleep immediately. I do not think that 

 this drowsiness can be attributed to the cold, for on the summit, where 

 the cold was very keen, I was wide awake. 



I also experienced very slight vertigo, but I mention it only to 

 omit nothing. As for nausea, vomiting, fainting, hemorrhages, none of 

 us was affected by any of them; our guides, of whom I asked infor- 

 mation on these different points, told me that they had never observed 

 hemorrhages. As to oppression, which is the symptom most frequently 

 observed, I should say that it is far from being absolute, for of the 

 six of us, I am the only one who felt it very definitely; the guides 



