The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-08-30
LIFr m HrGH LArIrUDEs.
Medical Aspects OF GreeIy's Experience In
the Extreme North.

/
Medical Aspects OF GreeIys Experience In
the Extreme North.
Medical Record.
A private interview with Lieutenant Greedy, at
his former home, has enabled us to obtain q
somewhat clearer insight into the physiological
and pathological effects Of prolonged residence
in the polar regions, as well as the straits to
which the Greedy party were finally reduced.
He ascertained that such sojourn, by inhabi-
tants of warmer climates who are in good phys
ical trim, is for brief term of years compatible
with high state Of all the organic functions, IN
which there is entire freedom from diseased
manifestations of every kind; but there is de-
eided limit to the endurance by Europeans and
Americans of such extreme prolonged cold. The
system is at first and for long time, by an adj
mirable series Of internal adjustments,
braced up against the rgors of climate, but after
the first year a considerable deterioration in
muscular and nervous energy, and In the caior-
igenous processes OF the economy IS experienced.
The severity of the second winter was found by
the party somewhat harder to bear, but the ex-
perience Of the previous winter had taught them
how best to fortify and protect themselves and
husband their forces. The third long arctic
night. in which the Thermometer was never less
than b below zero, and much OF the time was
was down to 40o or 500 below, would under the
most favorable circumstances, have been pain
full season to the party. Vital reaction was quite
perceptibly lessened muscular tone was i'm
paired, rendering exertion difficult. and Theuma-
tisms began to prevail Could the party, how
ever, have had plenty of food, and full and good
shelter, they would undoubtedly have all been
living at this day.
Lieutenant Greedy in reply to an interroga-
ton, affirmed his doubts as to whether his men,
if well provisioned, could have continued to live
at Fort Conger more than five years. The con-
stitutIOn of the average American IS not capable
of prolonged continuous adjustment to more
than zero cold, and such aeclimatization could
only come about after series of generations
where the law Of survival of the fttest should
operate, andin correspondence with radical
change In organization, in which nutriIive and
muscular development should predominant over
cerebral development In other words, nature
has shown us in the mentally dwarfed but phys
ically small Eskemo, the type of organization
best fitted for living in those septentronal lati-
tudes. 1t, however, is no less matter of fact
that the inhabitants of meridional chimes adj
mirably adapt themselves temporarily to the
most extreme cold In the retreat from Mos
COW, in 1872 the Italian regiments stood the
cold better than the Germans, and notably bet
ter than the Russians, who were accustomed to
the climate. The Turks presented the same rel
alive immunity at the siege of Sebastopol.
L onget, from whom these facts are taken re-
marks that the aptitude to resist Indictment tenn
peRature is acquired and lost in turn that people
nurtured in temperate or cold climates who go
to the torrid zone to live, much less sensitive
to the cold for time after their return to their
native country, though this lessened suscepti-
biIty disappears after year or two
As man can live amid intense surrounding
cold only by keeping his internal temperature
at about 985 degrees F., all the calorigenOus
centers-which comprise every living element
OF cell in every part of the sb0dy-are stimulat-
ed to greatly Augmented activity; the respra-
tory, digestive, and assimilative processes are
perfor med with unwonted energy; the hearts
action and the circulation are notably
quickened Lieutenant Greedy remarked that
breathing air of such intense GOODNESS had some
thing of the effect produced by breathing pure
oxygen; as for pulmonary troubles, he heard no
complaint of them while the party was at Fort
Conger. in Lady Franklin bay, at latitude Of
about 50 degrees, where the first two years were
spent: even simple cataFrhs were unknown, the
only thing from which the men suffered being
occasional rheumatism and stiffness of the
muscles and joints.
The party had ferocious appetites during all of
this long sojourn in the NORTH each man eating
with relish three meals of animal food and two
lunches every day and craving fats, though not
to the extent which some arctic travellers re-
port. Not even when the thermometer marked
sixty mine degrees below zero did these men in
dulge in crude blubber or tallow candles, which
tradition has designated as the customary food
of arctic royagefs; nor was even pemmican re-
garded as a rare and dainty dish by them,
Canned meats, of which they had an abundance
during the first two years, and steak or ragout
from the walrus seal, or polar bear, were priced
as the essential conditions of well being As for
spirituouS liquors, they were used with great
moderation and doied out to the members of the
expedition, as occasion seemed to demand, and
only when some unusual exertion or exposure
brought extraordinary fatigue or prostration, as
means to fOrtify the system against cold or brace
it up for forced marches, whisky, rum and other
alcoholic stimulants were regarded as of little
benefit
The party slept well during their long stay at
the north. except during the last few months of
physiological misery, when the pangs OF hunger
and the weakened, disordered condition of their
anemic brains precuded refreshing sleep. In
the case of some of them the horrors of scurvy
made their state more deplorable still.