Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-03-29
EXPERIMENTS BELOW ZERO.
The Varied Effects of Intense Cold on DIFF
ferent Animals.

ferent Animals
NJ. Raoul Pictet has been making
some curious experiments on the physio-
logical effects of extreme cold. With the
aid of various freezing mixtures he has
arranged what he calls ''wells of cold, y
the air in which is cooled to various de-
grees. So far the temperature III the
coolest of these wells is only reduced to
166 degrees below the Fahrenheit zero,
but much lower temperatures are easily
reached by other means. 1t is calculated
by modern physicists that about AGO de-
grees below zero will be reached what
is called the temperature Of death, " CT
absolute cold," at which all substances
are solid and at their extreme limit OF
contraction. NJ. Pictet has of course not
vet 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 a dog was
introduced into well of cold" at a
temperature of 1870 degrees below the
Fahrenheit zero For 10 minutes the
animals vitality struggled successfully
against the cold, and even raised to the
extent of half centigradc degree the
temperature of the we'll. AT the end of
this time the dogs cXtremities 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
ccntigrade degree. After this point was
reached, however, the vital powers
seemed to give way, the temperature
suddenly fell, and nothing could revive
the poor beast.
NJ. Pictet himself had the courage to
try how such terrible cold felt He
plunged his bare arm into the we'll at
the same temperature which had proved
fatal to the dog and held it there for
five OF six minutes. At the end Of three
or four minutes he felt violent pain,
proceeding apparently from the pcriOs-
teum, or sensitive covering Of the bone.
After about two minutes of this he
withdrew his arm, and Il sharp, burn
ing pain came on, caused, as he sup
posed, by the sudden reaction in the it's
sues. In experimenting on other animals
he found that the lower the organism
the better it seemed to resist cold.
Fishes could be frozen hard without los
ing vitality. If the temperature to which
they We're exposed did not sink below
the Fahrenheit zero, and if the expert
mcnt did not last too long, they could
be thawcd out, apparently without in
jury. Frogs could be kept for Il time in
4 temperature 20 degrees below the
Fahrenheit zero without harm, but they
sucCumbed to Il temperature of 30 de
grecs below. Snakes bore about the
same degree Of cold, and cCntipcGS did
not seem to be Inconvenience by Il
temperature of go below SuuilS were
still more hardy, suffering no loss Of
vitality i'll Il we'll at temperature 1874
degrees below zero.
This astonishing fortitudr Was, how
ever, far surpassed by that Of certain
microbes, which NJ. Pictrt frozr up in Il
block of >oliditicd atmospheric lir at Il
temperature $50 degrees below the Fab
renheit zero. In this block. hard and
solid as crystal, he kept them fur some
time, and then thawed them out gently,
upon which they exhibited their usual
activity. What can be the nature of Il
circulation which is indifferent to this
awful cold on Of an organism i'll which
circulation can he entirely stopped with
out injury we can only conjecture, but
NJ. PiCtct : experiments have certainly
added another mystery to that standing
enigma of science known as Vitality.-
Paris Journal.