74 VERTEBRATED ANIMALS. 





and thirty degrees, between that of the atmosphere and 

 that of the turkey. But the black captitmouse, a little 

 bird which passes its winter with us, is a much more ex- 

 traordinary instance of the same kind, on account of its 

 diminutive size. This bird, as it flies, does not probably 

 weigh more than half an ounce, and yet, small as it is, 

 thetvital action with which it is endowed, is sufficient to 

 maintain its temperature one hundred and thirty or one 

 hundred and forty degrees above that inw T hich it is placed, 

 and this difference, so far from inducing torpor, seems from 

 the cheerful and lively appearance of the little animal, to 

 be a temperature most agreeable to it. 



206. On the contrary, it is found by accurate experi- 

 ments, that the animal system is capable of resisting de- 

 grees of heat in a much greater proportion above its own 

 temperature, than these are below. 



207. Order of the Experiments on the power of man 

 to resist Heat. A circumstance which happened in France, 

 in the year 1760, first led philosophers to make experiments 

 on the power of the human system to resist high tempera- 

 tures. Some gentlemen having occasion to use a public 

 oven for certain experiments on the day in which bread 

 had been baked in it, and wishing to ascertain its tempera- 

 ture, a girl, one of the attendants at the bakery, offered to 

 go in and mark the height of the mercury with a pencil. 

 The girl smiled at the hesitation of the gentlemen to 

 allow her to do so, and going into the oven, marked the 

 temperature at 260 of Fahrenheit. Notwithstanding the 

 anxiety they felt for this young salamander, she declared 

 to their astonishment, that she felt no inconvenience from 1 

 the heat, and insisted on staying longer, and having re- 

 mained ten minutes, the thermometer then was found to 

 stand at 288, that is, 76 above the heat of boiling wa- 

 ter, and 190 above the ordinary temperature of the hu- 

 man system,which is 98. 



208. Experiments of Sir Charles Blagden and Dr 

 Fordyce. The publication of these facts excited, general 



What circumstances first led philosophers to make experiments on the 

 power of the human system to resist heat? How much higher was the 

 temperature of the oven than that of the ordinary human system ? 



