On touching his side, Sir Charles Blagden found it cold like a corpse, and yet the heat of his body under his tongue was 98 degrees.

Hence they concluded that the human body possesses the power of destroying a certain degree of heat when communicated with a certain degree of quickness.

This power, however, varies greatly in different media.

The same person who experienced no inconvenience from air heated to 211 degrees, could just bear rectified spirits of wine at 130 degrees, cooling oil at 129 degrees, cooling water at 123 degrees, and cooling quicksilver at 118 degrees.

A familiar instance of this occurred in the heated room.