SALAMANDERS. 365 



is better understood than of yore. It is astonishing to what 

 a high degree even the human body may be heated, provided 

 the skin evolves moisture. It was once believed that the 

 human body could not be, without injury, exposed even for 

 a short time to a degree of heat much exceeding that of hot 

 climates. The experience of Turkish baths teaches us better ; 

 but testimony had been adduced even before. The contrary 

 opinion was strengthened by the result of some experiments 

 made by Fahrenheit himself, and related by Boerhaave. He 

 shut-up some animals in a sugar-baker's stove, where the 

 mercury stood at 146 F., and with the following results: 

 A sparrow died in less than seven minutes ; a cat in rather 

 more than a quarter of an hour ; and a dog in about twenty- 

 eight minutes. Probably the noxious atmosphere had even 

 more to do with these results than the heat. 



The truth upon this subject may be said to be the result 

 of accident. It happened that in the years 1760-1761, MM. 

 Duhamel and Tillet were appointed to devise some means of 

 destroying a certain insect which consumed the grain in the 

 French province of Angoumais. They found this could be 

 done by a process of careful baking ; the heat being graduated 

 to a certain point not high enough to kill the grain, but suffi- 

 ciently high to kill the insect. In order to learn the fiercest 

 heat of the oven, they were in the habit of introducing a 

 thermometer placed upon the end of a long shovel. The 

 thermometer, on being withdrawn, indicated a degree of 

 temperature considerably above that of boiling water; but 

 M. Tillet was aware that the mercury must have partially 

 cooled in the act of withdrawal ; wherefore the temperature 

 of the oven itself was not so well made out as he could have 

 desired. 



While he was debating with his colleague the best mecha- 

 nical means of acquiring the needed information, a girl one 

 of the usual attendants volunteered to go in and mark with 

 a pencil the height at which the mercury stood. She did 



