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VOL. LXV.J PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS, GOJ 



above the 1 50th degree. By placing several thermometers in different parts of 

 the room they afterwards found, that the heat was a little greater in some places 

 than in others ; but that the whole difference never exceeded 20". They con- 

 tinued in the room above 20 minutes, in which time the heat had risen about 

 12°, chiefly during the first part of their stay. Within an hour afterwards, 

 they went into this room again, without feeling any material difference, though 

 the heat was considerably increased. On entering the room a 3d time, between 

 5 and 6 o'clock after dinner, they observeil the quicksilver in their only remain- 

 ing thermometer at 198°* : this great heat had so warped the ivory frames of 

 the other thermometers, that every one of them was broken. They now 

 staid in the room, all together, about 10 minutes; but finding that the ther- 

 mometer sunk very fast, it was agreed, that for the future only one person 

 should go in at a time, and orders were given to raise the fire as much as possible. 

 Soon afterwards Dr. Solander entered the room alone, and saw the thermometer 

 at 210°; but, during 3 minutes that he staid there, it sunk to 196°. Another 

 time, he found it almost 5 minutes before the heat was lessened from 210° to 

 196°. Mr. Banks closed the whole, by going in when the thermometer stood 

 above 211° ; he remained 7 minutes, in which time the quicksilver had sunk to 

 198° ; but cold air had been let into the room, by a person who went in and 

 came out again during Mr. Banks's stay. The air heated to these high degrees 

 felt unpleasantly hot, but was very bearable. Their most uneasy feeling was a 

 sense of scorching on the face and legs ; their legs particularly suffered very 

 much, by being exposed more fully than any other part to the body of the stove, 

 heated red hot by the fire within. Their respiration was not at all affected; it 

 became neither quick nor laborious ; the only difference was a want of that 

 refreshing sensation which accompanies a full inspiration of cool air. Their 

 time was so taken up with other observations that they did not count their 

 pulses by the watch : Dr. Blagden's, to the best of his judgment by feeling it, 

 beat at the rate of 1 00 pulsations in a minute, near the end of the first experi- 

 ment ; and Dr. Solander's made 92 pulsations in a minute soon after they had gone 

 out of the heated room. Mr. Banks sweated profusely, but no one else ; 

 Dr. Blagden's shirt was only damp at the end of the experiment. But the most 

 striking effects proceeded from their power of preserving their natural tempera- 

 ture. Being now in a situation in which their bodies bore a very different 

 relation to the surrounding atmosphere from that to which they had been 

 accustomed, every moment presented new phenomena. Whenever they 

 breathed on a thermometer, the quicksilver sunk several degrees. Every 

 expiration, particularly if made with any degree of violence, gave a very pleasant 



* This thermometer stands, near the boiling point, about I degree too high. — Orig, 



