VOL. LXIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 533 



bringing those people to life who have been suffocated by it ; this will supersede 

 the necessity of giving the history of l)Oth, or rather it will be giving both at 

 the same time. 



Russian houses are heated by means of ovens ; and the manner of heat- 

 ing them is as follows. A number of billets of wood are placed in the peech or 

 stove, and allowed to burn till they fall in a mass of bright red cinders ; then the 

 vent above is shut up, as also the door of the peech which opens into the room, 

 in order to concentrate the heat ; this makes the tiles of which the peech is 

 composed as hot as you desire, and sufficiently warms the apartment ; but some- 

 times a servant is so negligent as to shut up the peech or oven before the wood 

 is sufficiently burnt ; for the red cinders should be turned over from time to 

 time to see that no bit of wood remains of a blackish colour, and that the whole 

 mass is of a uniform glare, as if almost transparent, before the openings are 

 shut ; otherwise the ugar or vapour is sure to succeed to mismanagement of this 

 sort, and its effects are as follow : 



If a person lays himself down to sleep in the room exposed to the influence 

 of this vapour, he falls into so sound a sleep that it is difficult to awake him, but 

 he feels, or is sensible of, nothing. There is no spasm excited in the trachea 

 arteria or lungs to rouse him, nor does the breathing, by all accounts, seem to 

 be particularly affected : in short, there is no one symptom of suffocation ; but 

 towards the end of the catastrophe, a sort of groaning is heard by people in the 

 next room, which brings them sometimes to the relief of the sufferer. If a 

 person only sits down in the room, without intention to sleep, he is, after some 

 time, seized with a drowsiness and inclination to vomit. However, this last 

 symptom seldom affects a Russian ; it is chiefly foreigners who are awaked to 

 their dangers by a nausea ; but the natives, in common with strangers, perceive 

 a dull pain in their heads, and if they do not remove directly, which they are 

 often too sleepy to do, are soon deprived of their senses and power of motion, 

 insomuch, that if no person fortunately discovers them within an hour after this 

 worst stage, they are irrecoverably lost ; for the Russians say, that they do not 

 succeed in restoring to life those who have lain more than an hour in a state of 

 insensibility. 



The recovery is always attempted, and often effected, in this manner. They 

 carry the patient immediately out of doors, and lay him on the snow, with no- 

 thing on him but a shirt and linen drawers. His stomach and temples are then 

 well rubbed with snow, and cold water or milk is poured down his throat. This 

 friction is continued with fresh snow until the livid hue, which the body had 

 when brought out, is changed to its natural colour, and life renewed ; then they 

 cure the violent head-ache which remains by binding on tlie forehead a cataplasm 

 of black rye bread and vinegar. In this manner the unfortunate man is per- 



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