The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-07-31 00:00:00

THE INFLUENCE OF ARCTIC COLD
ON MAN.

Lieutenant Payer, the Austria-a Arctic explorer, has
been laying some of the results of his explorations
before the Geographical Society at Vienna (says
the London Medical Record). Referring to the in-
fluence of extreme cold on the human organism,
he related that on Mar, 3h 14, 1874, he and his com-
panions made • a sledge journey over the Samiklar
glacier, in order to make observations of Francis-
Joseph Land. On that day the cold marked forty
degrees (Reaumur) below zero. Notwithstanding this
intense cold, M. Payer and a Tyrolese went out before
sunrise to make observations and sketch. The sunrise
was magnificent; the sun seemed surrounded, as it
does at a high degree of cold, by small sung, and its
light appeared more dazzling from the contrast with the
extreme cold. The travellers were obliged to pour rum
down their throats so as not to touch the edge of the
metal cups, which would have been as dangerous as if
they had been red-hot; but the rum had lost all its
strength and its liquidity, and was as flat and thick as
oil, It was impossible to smoke either cigars or to.

bacco in short pipes. for very soOn nothing but a piece
of ice remained in the mouth. The metal of the in-
strument was just like red-hot iron to the touch, as
were some lockets, which some of the travellers ro•
rnantically; but imprudently, continued to wear next
the skin.' M. Payer says that so. great an amount of
cold paralyses the will, and, that, under its influence,
men, from the unsteadiness of their gait, their stam-
mering talk, and the slowness of their mental opera-
itions, seem as if they were intoxicated. Another effect
of cold. LS a tormenting thirst, which is due to the eva-
poration of the moisture of the body. It is unwhole-
some to use snow to quench the thirst as it
brings an inflammation of the throat, palate, and
tongue. Besides enough can never be taken to quench
the thirst; as a temperature of 30 deg. to 40 deg. below
z-ro makes it taste like molten metal. Snow-eaters in
the North are considered as feeble and effeminate, in
he same way as an opium-eater in the East. The
groups of travellers who traversed the snowfields were
surrounded by thick vapours formed by the emana-
tions from their bodies, which became condensed not-
withstanding the furs in which the travellers were
enveloped. These vapours fell to the ground with a
slight noise, frozen into the form of small crystals, and
rendered the atmosphere thick, impenetrable, and
dark. Notwithstanding the humidity of the air, a
disagreeable sensation of dryness was felt. Every
sound diffused itself to a very long distance; an ordi-
nary conversation could be heard at a hundred paces
off, whilst the report of guns from the top of high
mountains could scarcely be heard. M. Payer explains
this phenomenon by the large quantity of moisture in the
Arctic atmosphere. Meat could be chopped and mercury
used in the shape of balls. Both smell and taste be-
come greatly enfeebled in these latitudes, strength
gives way under the paralysing influence of the cold,
the eyes involuntarily close and become frozen. When
locomotion stops, the sole of the foot becomes insen-
sible. It is somewhat curious that the beard does not
freeze, but this is explained from the air expired falling
immediately transformed into snow. The cold causes
dark beards to become lighter; the secretion of the
eyes and nose always increases, whilst the formation
of perspiration altogether ceases. The only possible
protection against the cold is to be very warmly clothed,
and to endeavour as much as possible to prevent the
condensation of the atmosphere, whilst the much-
vaunted plans of anointing and blackening the body
are pronounced to have no real value.