230 Historical 



sen ted by a man subjected to the action of compressed or ex- 

 panded air; we have just taken from the original memoir what 

 relates to this last point. 



We regret to add that Magendie did not display much fore- 

 sight when he said: 



From a medical point of view, these apparatuses as yet do not 

 seem to offer any application . . . That is not true, however, of those 

 which M. Junod designs to use for rarifying or compressing the air 

 around members. 



It is not surprising to note that after these discouraging re- 

 marks M. Junod gave up the use of expanded air as a general 

 medium, and limited himself to improving 56 the large cupping- 

 glasses which bear his name, a very powerful therapeutic agent 

 which has very unjustly been neglected by physicians. But through 

 a strange confusion, explanations which were very appropriate 

 when it was a matter of the local rarefaction by the large cupping- 

 glasses continued to be applied to the general action of decreased 

 pressure. As an example of this mistake, I shall quote the remarks 

 of Dr. H. Favre: 57 



The principles upon which the Junod method rests are very 

 simple: 



M. Junod, born in the Alps, had himself felt the difference in 

 pressure as one ascends or descends in the mountains. He resumed 

 the experiments of de Saussure and Gay-Lussac with the most laud- 

 able discernment. 



If one ascends to the summit of Mont Blanc, or rises in a balloon 

 to a height of 7000 meters, he feels remarkable effects, resulting solely 

 from the lack of pressure exerted at these heights by the more and 

 more rarefied atmosphere. 



Artificially, we know how, by making a vacuum, to rarefy the 

 air, that is, to lessen the pressure on a circumscribed area. If we are 

 dealing with a living body, certain effects produced by an ascent in 

 the atmosphere will then appear: such is the purpose of hcmospasie; 

 Dr. Junod attains it by the creation of his large cupping-glass. (P. 7.) 



Returning now to mountain travellers, we find again the series 

 of mistaken preconceptions and apparent contradictions which we 

 have already noted. The difficulty of explaining the facts brings 

 many of these travellers to deny them. An example of these 

 theoretical protests is furnished us by the editor of the Biblio- 

 thcque universelle of Geneva, who reviewed the account of the 

 ascent of Mont Blanc by Dr. Barry: 



The circumstances observed by M. Barry are so unimportant that 

 they confirm us in the opinion that fatigue plays a greater part than 



