248 Observations upon M. Boutigny’s recent Experiment. 
I should have considered the temperature of the iron, which 
was about 2732° Fahr., as below 96° Fahr.; for, on with- 
drawing the finger, it was not so warm as the other hand. 
M. Fessel also, and the other three persons who accompanied 
me, repeated this experiment, with certain modifications ; 
one of them with his hand dry; another remarked that the 
hand, after having been previously dipped in water, when 
withdrawn, was only dry in that part which had not been 
immersed ; a third took up the iron with the hand made 
hollow. The minute hairs upon the inserted fingers had en- ; 
tirely disappeared ; but the nails were not injured, nor was 
any penetration of heat through the nails remarked. The ; 
hand, when withdrawn, had a slight empyreumatic odour, 
which was stronger when there were warts upon it; but in 
no case was there the slightest burning sensation, or evena = 
disagreeable sensation of heat. Hence, certain minor opera- 
—— 
¢ 
tions in surgery might be performed with least pain by P 
placing the foot in a bath of red-hot iron. Lastly, 1 made one ; 
other experiment, the result of which might have been anti- 
cipated. 
I held the finger of a leathern glove, which I had weil 
wetted inside, and had placed on a wooden rod for nearly a 
a minute in the melted iron; on withdrawing it the glove 
was not only unburnt, but had only a temperature of about 
132° Fahr. (I had not a thermometer with me). Conjectures 
and theoretical views upon these remarkable phenomena, 
would be premature without further experiments. I hope, ¢ 
} 
no pe 
= fOr 
< 
however, soon to be able to communicate some remarks upon 
them.—( Philosophical Magazine, vol. xxxvi., No. 241, p. 137.) 
ia 
Se See. ‘. 
with the bare hand from a crucible, and throw it against the wall. This con- 
firms his statement, as also some other facts which Boutigny himself mentions 
in his memoir, that the phenomenon mentioned has long been known, Snr 
among the people engaged in the arts.—(Poggendory.) 
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