112 Some Particulars respecting the 
I have stated elsewhere* that we find traces of the sphe- 
roidal state in the Bible. Does not the fact I have related 
respecting Adurabad Mabrasphand (and I could have added 
many others) seem to prove that the knowledge of the an- 
cients with regard to heat, was much greater than we sup- 
pose? They were unacquainted, perhaps, with minute mat- 
ters respecting heat, as, for example, the thousands of cen- 
tigrade degrees, but they certainly knew its grand effects. 
It may be gathered from this note that a certain number 
of historical facts considered fabulous may be true, and that 
the ancient philosophers probably knew many things of 
which we are ignorant. A little more respect for them, 
a little less admiration of ourselves, would not be misplaced. 
I shall conclude this note by reminding the Academy, 
whose kind indulgence I again solicit, of this remarkable 
and unexpected analogy existing between the living mole- 
cule, and the molecule in the spheroidal state ; it is the fixity 
of the temperature, whatever, in other respects, may be the 
variation of that of the surrounding medium. 
Thus man may live in media which vary from — 30° C. to 
+ 40° C., without his own temperature being affected. We 
know that man may even endure for some time the extreme 
temperatures of —60° C. and + 150° C., his own remaining 
uniform. We know that the inhabitants near the poles, those 
of the fortunate climates of the tropics, and the burning re- 
gions of the line, are of the same temperature, or that, if it 
vary, it is only within very narrow limits.t 
This being admitted, let us take a drop of water and throw 
it into a vessel heated to 142° C.; this water will immediately 
assume the temperature of + 98° C., and will continue there, 
the vessel being changed to all imaginable temperatures from 
the above minimum I have mentioned (+ 142°). 
This, the stable equilibrium of bodies in the spheroidal 
state, with regard to heat, will one day enter, at least 
* Nouvelle Branche de Physique, on Etudes sur les corps a l’etat spheroidal, 
pal 
t Ibid., p. 94 and 192. 
