According to his careful estimation, the temperature of space is not much lower than 70 or 80 degrees Fahr.

below zero." "No more ?" asked Ardan.
"No more," answered Barbican, "though I must acknowledge we have only his word for it, as the _Memoire_ in which he had recorded all the elements of that important determination, has been lost somewhere, and is no longer to be found." "I don't attach the slightest importance to his, or to any man's words, unless they are sustained by reliable evidence," exclaimed M'Nicholl.
"Besides, if I'm not very much mistaken, Pouillet--another countryman of yours, Ardan, and an Academician as well as Fourrier--esteems the temperature of interplanetary spaces to be at least 256 deg.Fahr.

below zero.

This we can easily verify for ourselves this moment by actual experiment." "Not just now exactly," observed Barbican, "for the solar rays, striking our Projectile directly, would give us a very elevated instead of a very low temperature.

But once arrived at the Moon, during those nights fifteen days long, which each of her faces experiences alternately, we shall have plenty of time to make an experiment with every condition in our favor.