Copy 1, Volume 1

Tracts on the natural history of animals and vegetables / Translated from the original Italian by John Graham Dalyell, with physiological illustrations by the translator.

  • Spallanzani, Lazzaro, 1729-1799
Date:
1803
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tracts on the natural history of animals and vegetables / Translated from the original Italian by John Graham Dalyell, with physiological illustrations by the translator. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    163/442 (page 67)
    in fome winters at Peterfburgh, the thermometer fell 29°, and once 33° below o(1). The cold at Quebec exceeded it, for the thermometer fell to 42°(2). That at.Torneao, obferved by Maupertuis, was ftill greater, as it fell to 51° (3). But this which appears extreme, compared with what we witnefs, cannot bear comparifon with that femetimes felt in many parts of Siberia, as - Tomfk, Kirenga, Jenifeik, where the thermome- ter has been feen at go°, 128°, and even 178° below 0 (4). | Such dreadful cold, we cannot deny, was per- nicious, nayfatal. In Peterfburgh, at—29°, the face could not be kept uncovered above half a minute(s): and at Yorneao, where the ther- mometer fell—51i°, thofe expofed to the air felt the breait as if lacerated. Nor is it uncom- mon fer the inhabitants of thefe cold climates to lofe fome member, as a leg or an arm, during winter (6). Similar and more terrible are the effects in Siberia : yet, in other parts of the earth, cold is perhaps more intenfe. Such may Captain Middleton have experienced in Hudfon’s Bay, as he has communicated to the London Royal E 2 Society. (1) Chem. ibid. (2) Hiltoire de L’ Academie Royale de Scienrés, 1749. (3) Voyage au Cercle Polaire. (4) Hitt. de Acad, Roy. (5) Ibid. (6). Maupertuis, ibid.