Hr. Perckal on the Effects c/ Famine^ &c. 5 1 1 



^uite, as long in air, in which candles have burned 

 out, as in con^imon air. There muft be fomc 

 power, therefore, it Ihould fcem, rn the living 

 ceconomy, to free the body from redundant phlo* 

 gifton^ by other emundories than the lungs: or 

 a fmall portion of atmofpheric air may fuffice, 

 for this purpofe, in extraordinary emergencies, 

 and for a fhort period of time. This accom- 

 modating faculty, if I may fo exprefs it, is evi- 

 denced in various other inftances, and particu- 

 larly in one, no lefs remarkable than that, of 

 which we are now treating: I mean, the equality 

 of temperature, which the body retains, in 

 great ej^tremes of heat and cold. A Ruffian 

 Boor, in the winter feafon, daily experiences all 

 thefe varieties of air, of heat, and of cold, with- 

 out inconvenience. V/hen labouring out of 

 doors, he is expofed to the intenfity of froft and 

 fnow: When he retires in the evening, to his 

 hut, which confiils only of one clofe apartment, 

 never ventilated during fix months, he feeds 

 upon falted filh or flelli, and afterwards repofes 

 on a greafy mattrefs, placed over an oven, in 

 which billets of wood are burned. In this 

 fituation, he is literally ftewed, with his whole 

 family, who live in a conftant fteam, not offen- 

 five to tiiemfelves, but fo grofs and noifome, as 

 to be fcarcely fupport?.ble by a ftranger. * 



• Sec Phil, Tranf. vol. LXVIII. p. 622. 



Th« 



