Arizona silver belt., 1894-07-14
EXPERIMENTS BELOW ZERO.
The Varied Effects of Intense Cold on DIf
 ferent Animals.

ferent Animals.
 NJ Raoul Pictet has been making some curious experiments on the physio- logical effects of extreme cold. With tho aid of various freezing mixtures he has arranged what he calls "wells of cold, " the air in which is cooled to various des greee. So fur the temperature in the coldest of these wells is only reduced to l66 degrees below the Fahrenheit gEro, but much lower temperatures arc easily reached by other means. It is calculated by modern physicists that about AGO de- groes below zero will be reached what is called the temperature of death, or
 absolute cold, atwhich all substances are solid and at their extreme limit of contraction. M Pictet has of course not ! yet attained this condition, but he has approached near enough to it to give some singular indications of what may be discovered later
 In one of his experiments dog was introduced into well of cold" at temperature of i30 degrees below the Fahrenheit zero For 10 minutes the animal s vitality struggled successfully against the cold, and even raised to the extent of half q centigrado degree the temperature of the we'll At the end of this time the dog's exhemities began to freeze, but the heart and vital organs remained warm, and it was not until the end of an hour and half that the temperature of this part of the animal was found to have been reduced one centigrade degree After this point was reached, however, the vital powers seemed to give way, the temperature suddenly fell, and nothing could revive tho poor beast
 Nj. Pictet himself had the courage to | try how snch terrible cold felt He ! plunged his bare arm into the well at the same temperature which had proved fatal to the dog and held it there for l five or six minutes At the end a2 three or four minutes he felt violent pain, | proceeding apparently from the perios. teum, or sensitive covering of the bone 1 After about two minutes of this he ! withdrew his arm, aud sharp, burn | ing pain Came OH, caused, as he sup posed, by the sudden reaction in the tis-
 sues. In experimenting on other animals he found that the lower the organism | the better 1t seemed to resist cold. l Fishes could be frozen hard without los 1 ing vitality If the temperature to which
 they were exposed did not sink below i the Fahrenheit zero, and if the experi-
 mcnt did not last too long, they could i be thawed out apparently without in. 1 jmy Frogs could be kept for time in
 a temperature 20 degrees below tho i Fahrenheit zero without harm, but they succumbod to temperature of 30 de- 1 Frees below Snakes bore about the same degree of cold, and eeHtipods did
 not seem to be inc0nyeRienGed by 6 1 temperature of co below Snails were still more hardy suffering no loss of
 vitality in well at a temperature i84 | degrees below zero
 This astonishing fortitude Has, how ever, far surpassed by that of certain microbgs, which M Pictct frozc up in q
 block of soliaided atmospheric air at a ! temperature $50 degrees below the Fah- roDheit zero In this block, hard and solid as crystal, be kept them for EoIne time, and then thawod them cut gently. upon which tley exhibited their usual
 activity. Whag can be the nature of q circulation which is indifferent to tllis awful cold or of an organism in which circulation can be entirely topped with oEt injury We can only conjecture but i N. Pictet's experiments have certainly
 added uothor mystery ta that standing
 enigma of science known as vitality. - l Paris Journal