CAROLINE.
But the temperature of the atmosphere, and consequently that of inanimate bodies, is surely never so high as that of animal heat?
MRS. B.
I beg your pardon. Frequently in the East and West Indies, and sometimes in the southern parts of Europe, the atmosphere is above ninety-eight degrees, which is the common temperature of animal heat. Indeed, even in this country, it occasionally happens that the sun’s rays, setting full on an object, elevate its temperature above that point.
In illustration of the power which our bodies have to resist the effects of external heat, Sir Charles Blagden, with some other gentlemen, made several very curious experiments. He remained for some time in an oven heated to a temperature not much inferior to that of boiling water, without suffering any other inconvenience than a profuse perspiration, which he supported by drinking plentifully.
EMILY.
He could scarcely consider the perspiration as an inconvenience, since it saved him from being baked by giving vent to the excess of caloric.
CAROLINE.
I always thought, I confess, that it was from the heat of the perspiration that we suffered in summer.
MRS. B.