495. In a third series of experiments the temperature of the chamber was raised to the 260th degree. At this time, continues Dr. Blagden, I went into the room, with the addition to my common clothes of a pair of thick worsted stockings drawn over my shoes, and reaching some way above my knees. I also put on a pair of gloves, and held a cloth constantly between my face and the stove (necessary precautions against the scorching of the red-hot iron). I remained eight minutes in this situation, frequently walking about to all the different parts of the room, but standing still most of the time in the coolest spot near the lowest thermometer. The air felt very hot, but by no means so as to give pain. I had no doubt of being able to bear a much greater heat; and all who went into the room were of the same opinion. I sweated, but not very profusely. For seven minutes my breathing remained perfectly good; but after that time, I began to feel an oppression in my lungs, attended with a sense of anxiety; which gradually increasing for the space of a minute, I thought it most prudent to end the experiment. My pulse, counted as soon as I came into the cool air, for the uneasy feeling rendered me incapable of examining it in the room, beat at the rate of 144 pulsations in a minute, which is more than double its ordinary quickness. In the course of this experiment, and others of the same kind by several of the gentlemen present, some circumstances occurred to us which had not been remarked before. The heat, as might have been expected, felt most intense when we were in motion; and on the same principle, a blast of the heated air from a pair of bellows was scarcely to be borne: the sensation in both these cases exactly resembled that felt in our nostrils on inspiration. It was observed that our breath did not feel cool to our fingers unless held very near the mouth; at a distance the cooling power of the breath did not sufficiently compensate the effect of putting the air in motion, especially when we breathed with force.
496. On going undressed into the room, the impression of the air was much more disagreeable than before; but in five or six minutes, a profuse sweat broke out, which instantly relieved me. During all the experiments of this day, whenever I tried the heat of my body, the thermometer always came very nearly to the same point (the ordinary standard), not even one degree of difference, as in our former experiments.