Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 3.djvu/65

 more than 122o, but the palate and tongue are less sensitive."

"You surprise me."

"Well, I will convince you it is fact," returned Clawbonny, and taking up a thermometer, he plunged it into the steaming coffee. He waited till the mercury rose as high as 131o and then withdrew it, and swallowed the liquid with evident gusto.

Bell tried to follow his example, but burned his mouth severely.

“You are not used to it," said the Doctor, coolly.

"Can you tell us, Clawbonny," asked Altamont, "what is the highest temperature that the human body can bear."

"Yes; several curious experiments have been made in that respect. I remember reading of some servant girls, in the town of Rochefoucauld, in France, who could stay ten minutes in a baker's large oven when the temperature was 300o, while potatoes and meat were cooking all round them."

“What girls!" exclaimed Altamont.

“Well, there is another case, where eight of our own countrymen–Fordyce, Banks, Solander, Blagdin, Home, Nooth, Lord Seaforth, and Captain Phillips–went into one as hot as 200o, where eggs and beef were frizzling."

"And they were Englishmen!" said Bell, with a touch of national pride.

"Oh, the Americans could have done better than that," said Altamont.

"They would have roasted," returned the Doctor, laughing. "At all events, they have never tried it, so I shall stand up for my countrymen. There is one more instance I recollect, and really it is so incredible that it would be impossible to believe it if it were not attested by unimpeachable evidence. The Duke of Ragusa and Dr. Jung, a Frenchman and an Austrian, saw a Turk plunge into a bath at 170o.”

"But that is not so astonishing as those servant girls, or our own countrymen," said Johnson.

"I beg your pardon," replied Clawbonny; "there is a great difference between plunging into hot air and hot water. Hot air produces perspiration, which protects the skin, but boiling water scalds. The maximum heat of