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The Influence of High Air Temperatures No. I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

J. S. Haldane
J. S. Haldane
Affiliation:
Fellow of New College and University Lecturer in Physiology, Oxford.
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The aim of the following investigations was to ascertain the limits within which men can continue to exist normally, and to work, when the air temperature is abnormally high: also to study the abnormal phenomena which are produced when these limits are exceeded.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , October 1905 , pp. 494 - 513
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1905

References

1 Philosophical Transactions, Vol. 65, 1775, pp. 111, 463, 484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

1 For the literature of this subject up to 1897 see Pembrey, , “Animal Heat” in Schäfer's Text-book of Physiology, Vol. I, pp. 788, 798.Google Scholar

2 Journal of Physiology, Vol. XXIII, p. 388, 1898.Google Scholar

1 Guy's Hospital Report, Vol. LVII, 1902, p. 283.Google Scholar

2 Ibid. p. 304.Google Scholar

1 For details as to the temperature and composition of the air in this and other Cornish mines, see Appendix III. to “Report on the Health of Cornish Mines,” Parliamentary Paper Cd. 2091, 1904, by Haldane, Martin, and Thomas.

1 Dr A. E. Boycott has given me the following very interesting account of his experiences when he visited the mine, accompained by Mr Cadman, H.M. Inspector of Mines, in order to investigate the conditions with reference to the possible presence of ankylostomiasis among the miners:

“We climbed straight down one of the shafts (temperature 78° F. at the bottom) to the 278 fathoms level, and walked out under the sea along the pony road, soon discarding our coats, and going in vests and trousers only. We then climbed down the submarine shaft (temperature 86° wet and dry bulb at the top, and 87° at the bottom) to the 302 fathom level, and walked out westwards about half-a-mile, I should think, to an “end” where the temperature was 93°, air saturated. The going was bad, and I had to stoop most of the way, as the road was largely timbered. When we reached the end we had been underground I daresay three hours, as we had been collecting samples of faeces, etc. I felt very hot, and was glad to sit down. My mouth temperature was 103·5° by an ordinary clinical thermometer which C. read for me. There were a man and a boy in the end supposed to be hand-drilling, but they did not seem to be doing anything except sweating. As you know, the men are reported to wet the drill-holes by pouring the sweat out of their boots! Coming back I did pretty well till we had to come up the ladders from the 302 to the 278. After the first one I made up my mind I should never get up the rest, as severe dyspnoea came on when I had gone a few steps up each ladder. These were, I suppose, about three fathoms each, and I had to lie down for five minutes or so at the top of each one and gasp. When we got up to the pony road and had a drink of water I soon felt pretty well all right and came up the man-engine (my first experience) without trouble except when I lost my light. By the time I had washed and changed I felt quite well, and regretted that we had wasted our opportunities of collecting samples of faeces. After I had been in the end I felt no interest in the matter. I am sure the psychological effect of knowing that there was no gig, and that I had to climb up or face the unknown terrors of the man-engine, had a good deal to do with my feeling beaten. Cadman did not feel it nearly so much as I did. A few weeks later I did three much longer days running in Talke, Birchenwood, and Snailbeach, and though I got tired in the four-feet roads and was very stiff afterwards I never felt at all knocked up.”

1 Boycott, and Haldane, , this Journal, IV, p. 108, 1904.Google Scholar

2 37°C.=98·6°F.:1·8°F.=1°C.

1 See this Journal, III, p. 382, 1903.Google Scholar