OFFICIAL EMPLOYMENT. 151 



cess of galvanizing the wound by means of zinc and silver had 

 scarcely commenced, when the serous humour poured out 

 copiously ; it rapidly deepened in colour, and in a few seconds 

 inflamed my back in blood-red streamers as it ran down. I 

 incautiously applied cold water to cleanse the excoriated places, 

 when they instantly increased so manifestly in size and inten- 

 sity of colour, that both the doctor and I became alarmed, and 

 we bathed the wounds with luke-warm milk, without however 

 producing much effect. The experiment was thus incontrover- 

 tibly confirmed to my own mind.' 



Many experiments were in a similar way repeated upon 

 various wounds in the hands, and also in the cavity left in the 

 jaw by an extracted tooth ; the attempt to carry on the process 

 so far as to benumb the irritated nerve was unsuccessful, since 

 the pain became too violent. 



It is not in accordance with the systematic arrangement of 

 this work to enter in this chapter on the details of Humboldt^s 

 scientific labours ; it will be well, however, to mention here some 

 facts which may serve to illustrate his personal heroism and his 

 self-sacrificing devotion in the pursuit of science. With this 

 intention, therefore, the following proof may be adduced of the 

 zeal with which he engaged in scientific investigation. 



It is well known that the existence of fire-damp and noxious 

 gases, besides a variety of other injurious influences, render 

 working in the mines an employment fraught with extreme 

 danger. It is found, however, that the sudden and murderous 

 explosions are, on the whole, less destructive to human life than 

 the insidious diseases^to which the miners in their underground 

 labours become a prey, such as asthma, disease of the bone, 

 jaundice, induration of the glands, palsy, and skin diseases. 

 Delighted as was Humboldt to enlarge the boundaries of scien- 

 tific knowledge by means of his discoveries, 4 he experienced a 

 still deeper gratification in devising methods for the preserva- 

 tion of life and health among an industrious class of men.' 



' Equipped with all the apparatus then at the command of 

 science, Humboldt made, ' at the cost of months of exertion and 

 self-sacrifice,' chemical analyses of the various gases to be found 

 in mines, and investigated the causes of their peculiar localisa- 

 tion, thus originating a new system of subterranean meteorology. 



