THE HUMAN ANIMAL ECONOMY. 1^7 



lagopus) alone braves the weather *. We have another 

 example, in which three men remained between six and 

 seven years in 'JS^ N. L.f. 



The power of the human body to withstand severe cold 

 will appear in a more remarkable light, when we observe 

 what heat it is capable of bearing, Boerhaave asserted, 

 that a temperature of from 96° to 100° would be fatal to 

 man. The mean temperature of Sierra Leone is 84° Fahr. 

 Messrs. Watt and Winterbottom saw the thermometer 

 frequently at 100°, and even 102° and 103° (in the shade), 

 at some distance from the coast J. Adanson saw it at 

 1084° in the shade at Senegal in 17° N. L. § : and Buffon 

 cites an instance of its being seen at 117|°. The country 

 to the west of the Great Desert may be still hotter than 

 Senegal, from the eft'ect of the winds which have sw^pt 

 over the whole tract of its burning sands. When the sirocco 

 blows in Sicily, the thermometer rises to 112°, according to 

 Brydone. Dr. Chalmers observed a heat of 115° in 

 South Carolina in the shade || : and Humboldt, of 110° to 

 115° in the Llanos or deserts near the Orinoco in South 

 America **. 



Thus man can support all possible degrees of atmosphe- 

 rical heat and cold : he has an equal power of supporting 

 varieties of pressure. The ordinary pressure of the air, at 

 the level of the sea, may be reckoned at 32,325 lbs. for the 

 whole surface of the body, supposing the barometer at 30 

 inches. If we ascend to a height of 12,000 feet, of which 

 elevation extensive tracts, inhabited by thousands, are found 



* Voyage de la Comp. des Indes ; pi. 1. A short account of the voyage is 

 given by Mr. Barrow, in his Chronological History of Voyages into the 

 Arctic Regions ; chap, ii.- The polar bear disappeared, and the white foxes 

 were seen in great numbers, as soon as the sun set : when it rose again, the 

 foxes went away, and the bears returned. 



+ Dr. AiKiN, as above quoted. 



^ Winterbottom's ^ccoimf o/6'ie Native Africans ; v. i. p. 32 — 3. 



^ Voyage au Senegal. 



II On the Weather and Diseases of South Carolina. 



** Tableau Physique des Regions Eqnatoriales. 



N 



