Joseph Barcroft Working as a researcher after graduating from Cambridge, Barcroft was very interested in idea of the oxygenation in blood. In order to complete his studies, Barcroft committed himself to several self-experiments that pushed him to the edge of his physical and mental limits. In one of his first experiments on the study of dangerous gases known to cause asphyxiation during the chemical warfare of WWI, he decided to shut himself into a chamber full of hydrogen cyanide (prussic acid) for a full 10 minutes. While the dog that accompanied him lasted only 95 seconds before dying, Barcroft was able to tough it out and last the full 10 minutes.In another experiment, Barcroft stayed in a low-oxygen glass chamber to find the minimum amount of oxygen a human needed to survive. For nearly a week, he lived at the equivalent of an elevation of 4,900 meters (16,000 ft), causing his whole body to turn blue. In his last and most drastic self-experiment, Barcroft locked himself naked into a refrigerated chamber to test the effects of freezing on mental activity. Barcroft found that, at a certain point close to lethal hypothermia, the body actually begins to feel warm rather than freezing cold. Barcroft had the ability to voluntarily leave the chamber at any time just as he had entered, but chose to stay until he became unconscious and a research assistant had to rescue him. -pup
Posted on: Sat, 31 Aug 2013 13:57:21 +0000
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