Raman spectroscopy, in which a laser beam serves the dual role of exciting the Raman spectrum and annealing the sample, shows promise as a means of investigating oxygen effects in the oxide superconductors. A technique is described, based on measurements of the ratios of the areas of corresponding peaks in the anti-Stokes and Stokes spectra, whereby the temperature of the illuminated region of the sample can be determined as a function of the power in the incident laser beam. It is found that, for sintered samples of bismuth 2122, a small correction must be made for the departure from thermodynamic equilibrium induced by the pumping effect of the laser beam.