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surrounded with equal chances of success, yet they had always succeeded.
But the particular nature of the subject and the special scruples
imposed upon my conscience, obliged me to employ a certain number of new
conditions, which I had long since, in other connections, foreseen the
expediency of. I had taken the pains to arrange an opening at each end
of my oval receiver, and fit into it a heavy glass, which enabled me to
follow with my eye the effects of the vacuum on the Colonel. I was
entirely prevented from shutting the windows of my laboratory, from fear
that a too elevated temperature might put an end to the lethargy of the
subject, or induce some change in the fluids. If a thaw had come on, all
would have been over with my experiment. But the thermometer kept for
several days between six and eight degrees below zero, and I was very
happy in seeing the lethargic sleep continue, without having to fear
congelation of the tissues.

I commenced to produce the vacuum with extreme slowness, for fear that
the gases distributed through the blood, becoming free on account of the
difference of their tension from that of rarified air, might escape in
the vessels and so bring on immediate death. Moreover, I watched, every
moment, the effects of the vacuum on the intestinal gases, for by
expanding inside in proportion as the pressure of the air diminished
outside of the body, they could have caused serious disorders. The
tissues might not have been entirely ruptured by them, but an internal
lesion would have been enough to occasion death in a few hours after
reanimation. One observes this quite frequently in animals carelessly
desiccated.

Several times, too rapid a protrusion of the abdomen put me on my guard
against the danger which I feared, and I was obliged to let in a little
air under the receiver. At last, the cessation of all phenomena of this
kind satisfied me that the gases had disappeared by exosmose or had been
expelled by the spontaneous contraction of the viscera. It was not until
the end of the first day that I could give up these minute precautions,
and carry the vacuum a little further.

The next day, the 13th, I pushed the vacuum to a point where the
barometer fell to five millimetres. As no change had taken place in the
position of the body or limbs, I was sure that no convulsion had been
produced. The colonel had been desiccated, had become immobile, had lost
the power of performing the functions of