Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-09-05
HEAT IN THE MINES.

HEAT IN THE MINES.
The Sick and Delirious, aud the Rough
Treatment They Get.
Virginia (Nev.) Enterprise
Those who have n OF recently explored the
lower levels of the leading mines of the Com
stock can have but a very faint conception of
the heat prevailing therein at the present
time. The heat is terrible even in winter; it
is like the breath of a furnace and in most
places where men are obliged to work it is
deficient in oxygen, that life-supporting in
gredient having be en- burnt out by the
many candles used, a nd in various ways abb
sorbed and exhausted, 1t can be felt pierc-
ing through the little clothing worn, driving
the saliva in the mouth, and almost shrivel-
ing the eyeballs. A temperature of 120 to
$50 degrees is SO much above blood heat
that the process of cooking begins in the hu-
man frame. But for the floods of perspira-
ton covering the body the flesh would really
be cooked to a certain extent. 4 famous
English philosopher has given an ac-
count of his going into an oven
hot enough to cook beefsteak, and
remaining there till one lying near him was
actually cooked. Had it been the dead in
stead of the living body of the philosopher
that accompanied the beafsteak, it would
undoubtedly have been ''done to a turn
All that saved the experimenter, as he him
self says was the fact that he was constantly
in state of profuse perspiration. A tenn
perature above the naturel beat of the body
undoubtedly attacks it and causes the flesh
to undergo the first stages of cooking. This
happens to miner the moment perspiration
ceases to flow from the pores of the skin.
The stomach is first affected, then the brain.
1t is probably through disorder and of sick
ness at the stomach that perspiration is
checked. AS soon as perspiration ceases to
flow the body begins to cook, and first of all,
apparently, the brain, as the man at once
becomes delirious-as wildly insane as any
patient in lunatic asylum. Gases of this
kind occur much more frequently than is
supposed or generally known. Of late they
have been very frequent in the California
and Consolidated Virginia mines. When a
miner suddenly begins to rave or talk inco-
herently his companions doctor him. It
is rough treatment they give him, but it is
found to be very effective. The man
affected is seized and carried to
the coolest place III the vicinity, when
he. is bound hand and foot and
put through process of rubbing. The
friction is applied to the stomach, which is
found to be the seat of the trouble. and in
which knots nearly of the size of mans
fist are found to have formed. These must
be rubbed out, and as soon as they disappear
persplratlon again starts, and the man re-
gains his senses. The rubbing is sometimes
done with piece of gunny sack, but, as this
IS liable to cause useless abrasion of the skin.
pick-handle is pre- ferred. To be rubbed
down with a pick-handle in the hands of
muscular miner is not such treatment as any
man in his senses would be likely to greatly
desire, nor does the miner, even in his de-
hrium, desire it, therefore he is tied in such
way that he cannot resist. The miners
say that they can bring man out all right
by their method of treatment in less than
half The time that it would be done
by the physicians. a day or two
since at the Consolidated Virginia the
men took one of their companions,
who became deranged from the heat, tied
him at the end of the rope, and lowered him
about 100 feet to place where he could be
conveniently "doctored, then went at him
with their pick handles and soon brought
him out all right Day before yesteaday a
thing happened in the Consolidated Virginia
shaft which borders on the miraculous.
man was standing on plank that was
placed across the shaft, when he suddenly
tainted and fell upon his back, lying as Sc
curely along the bank as though he had been
placed there with the greatest care. It
was quite as wonderful, too, that he re-
NAMED just as he fell long enough to al
low his fellow workmen to reach him and
withdraw him from his perilous position.
Not once in 10000 times would mans life
be saved when fainting in such
position. The shaft mentioned is SO
fearfully hot that beside itpurgatory would
be reckoned cooling-of station. Al
though the men who work there are spe-
cles of human salamander,-like the philoso-
pher who got into the oven along with the
beefsteak,- they cannot work but about
ten minutes at time. They then fall back
and let others come to the front. In this
way of working it is asserted that there are
places in the bonanza mines where it is
now costing SIG per day to do the work of
one man. The men could do nothing at all
but for the liberal supply of ice and ice
water allowed them. They swallow ice
water by the gallon, and frequently pour the
same over each other. In these hot places
they use about ninety-fve pounds of ice per
day to the man. Without ice none of our
leading mines could be worked. Men can
not live in the lower levels without an ample
supply of ice-water, and even with it they
are, as we have seen, almost cooked alive
and frequently rendered delirious-would
die indeed were they not promptly taken in
hand and ''doctored''