by Barkham Burroughs
Available in 217 free installments
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At birth, the beats of the pulse are from 165 to 104, and the inspirations of breath from 70 to 23. From 15 to 20, the pulsations are from 90 to 57, the inspirations, from 24 to 16; from 29 to 50, the pulsations are 112 to 56, the inspirations 23 to 11. In usual states it is 4 to 1. The action of the heart distributes 2 ozs. of blood from 70 to 80 times in a minute.
The mean heat of the human body is 98 degs. and of the skin 90 degs. Tea and coffee are usually drank at 110 degs. The deepest coal mine in England is at Killingworth, near Newcastle, and the mean annual temperature at 400 yards below the surface is 77 degrees, and at 300 yards 70 degrees, while at the surface it is but 48 degrees, being 1 degree of increase for every 15 yards. This explains the origin of hot springs, for at 3,300 yards the heat would be equal to boiling water, taking 20 yards to a degree. The heat of the Bath waters is 116 degrees, hence they would appear to rise 1,320 yards.
Peron relates that at the depth of 2,144 feet in the sea the thermometer falls to 45 degrees, when it is 86 degrees at the surface.
Swemberg and Fourier calculate the temperature of the celestial spaces at 50 degrees centigrade below freezing.
In Northern Siberia the ground is frozen permanently to the depth of 660 feet, and only thaws to the extent of 3 or 4 feet in summer. Below 660 feet internal heat begins.
River water contains about 30 grs. of solid matter in every cubic foot. Fresh water springs of great size abound under the sea. Perhaps the most remarkable springs exist in California, where they are noted for producing sulphuric acid, ink, and other remarkable products.
St. Winifred's Well, in England, evolves 120 tons of water per minute, furnishing abundant water power to drive 11 mills within little more than a mile.
The French removed a red granite column 95 feet high, weighing 210 tons, from Thebes, and carried it to Paris. The display of costly architectural ruins at Thebes is one of the most astonishing to be seen anywhere in the world. The ruins and costly buildings in old Eastern countries, are so vast in their proportions and so many in number that it would require volumes to describe them.
Babel, now called Birs Nimroud, built at Babylon by Belus, was used as an observatory and as a temple of the Sun. It was composed of 8 square towers, one over the other, in all 670 feet high, and the same dimensions on each side on the ground.
The Coliseum at Rome, built by Vespasian for 100,000 spectators, was in its longest diameter 615-5 feet, and in the shortest 510, embraced 5-1/2 acres, and was 120 feet high. Eight aqueducts supplied ancient Rome with water, delivering 40 millions of cubit feet daily. That of Claudia was 47 miles long and 100 feet high, so as to furnish the hills. Martia was 41 miles, of which 37 were on 7,000 acres 70 feet high. These vast erections would never have been built had the Romans known that water always rises to its own level.
The Temple of Diana, at Ephesus, was 425 feet long and 225 feet broad, with 127 columns, 60 feet high, to support the roof. It was 220 years in building.
Solomon's Temple, built B.C. 1014, was 60 cubits or 107 feet in length, the breadth 20 cubits or 36 feet, and the height 30 cubits or 54 feet. The porch was 36 feet long and 18 feet wide.
The largest one of the Egyptian pyramids is 543 feet high, 693 feet on the sides, and its base covers 11 acres. The layers of stones are 208 in number. Many stones are over 30 feet long, 4 broad and 3 thick.
The Temple of Ypsambul, in Nubia, is enormously massive and cut out of the solid rock. Belzoni found in it 4 immense figures, 65 feet high, 25 feet over the shoulders, with a face of 7 feet and the ears over 3 feet.
Sesostris erected in the temple in Memphis immense statues of himself and his wife, 50 feet high, and of his children, 28 feet.
In the Temple of the Sun, at Baalbec, are stones more than 60 feet long, 24 feet thick and 16 broad, each embracing 23,000 cubic feet, cut, squared, sculptured, and transported from neighboring quarries. Six enormous columns are each 72 feet high, composed of 3 stones 7 feet in diameter. Sesostris is
