358 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



accustomed to attend ovens in a bakehouse were capable 

 of enduring for ten minutes a temperature of 270. 



The same gentlemen who performed the experiments 

 above described ventured to expose themselves to still 

 higher temperatures. Sir Charles Blagden went into a 

 room where the heat was 1 or 2 3 above 260, and re- 

 mained eight minutes in this situation, frequently walking 

 about to all the different parts of the room, but standing 

 still most of the time in the coolest spot, where the heat 

 was above 240. The air, though very hot, gave no pain, 

 and Sir Charles and all the other gentlemen were of 

 opinion that they could support a much greater heat. 

 During seven minutes, Sir C. Blagden 's breathing con- 

 tinued perfectly good, but after that time he felt an 

 oppression in his lungs, with a sense of anxiety, which 

 induced him to leave the room. His pulse was then 144, 

 double its ordinary quickness. In order to prove that 

 there was no mistake respecting the degree of heat indi- 

 cated by the thermometer, and that the air which they 

 breathed was capable of producing all the well-known 

 effects of such a heat on inanimate matter, they placed 

 some eggs and a beef-steak upon a tin frame near the 

 thermometer, but more distant from the furnace than from 

 the wall of the room. In the space of twenty minutes 

 the eggs were roasted quite hard, and in forty -seven 

 minutes the steak was not only dressed, but almost dry. 

 Another beef-steak, similarly placed, was rather overdone 

 in thirty-three minutes. In the evening, when the heat 

 was still more elevated, a third beef-steak was laid in the 

 same place, and as they had noticed that the effect of the 

 hot air was greatly increased by putting it in motion, they 

 blew upon the steak with a pair of bellows, and thus 

 hastened the dressing of it to such a degree, that the 

 greatest portion of it was found to be pretty well done in 

 thirteen minutes. 



