48 THE UNIVERSE. 



was withdrawn. Afterwards, with the aid of suitable 

 precautions, they reanimated the animalcules which were 

 found on the bulb. 



All present concluded from this experiment that the 

 tardigrades were almost incombustible, and that the}^ 

 miraculously resisted a temperature of 145° and even 153° 

 Centig. (or 293° and 306° Fahr.)i 



The miracle of these modern children of the furnace 

 has lessened in proportion as it has been more studied, 

 just as the stature of the Patagonians has diminished 

 since men have seen more of them. 



The tardigrades had, it is true, been plunged into a 

 stove heated from 145° to 153° Centig. (or 293° to 306° 

 Fahr.) But if they issued from it alive it was because 

 their frames had never in reality been subjected to this 

 burning heat, which would have been enough to coagu- 

 late their fluids and dry up all the sources of life. The 

 thermometer, being extremely sensitive, quickly took on 

 the temperature of the medium into which it had been 

 plunged, Ijut the earth which lay upon it, being a l^ad 

 conductor of heat, never reached this temjjerature by a 

 long way. This is the explanation of the pretended 

 prodigy. 



It was only a deceptive appearance. We sometimes 

 see at our fairs fire-proof conjurors, but no person is in 

 error as to our power of resisting fire being limited. 

 Physiologists cite the statement of M. Berger, who saw 

 a man remain seven minutes in a stove heated to 109° 



^ The experiments of which we are speaking here were made in 1841, in the 

 presence of Messrs. de Jussieu, Dumas, Milne-Edwards, and Quatrefages. 



It has been clearly shown in the present day that they were entirely erroneous, 

 for tlie Biological Society, in their celebrated experiments, never saw a single 

 tardigi-ade resuscitated after being subjected to a temperature of only 100° Centig. 

 (212° Fahr.) 



