Year: 1873

LONG POLAR NIGHTS.


The Arctic Regfons-Effect of Darkness


Upon Mon and Dogs.


The doubtful fate of the Polaris re.


calls some interesting "reminiscences In


the two Arctic voyages of DIR. Kane, a


commander of the Grinnell expedition.


sent out to find Sir John Franklin. An


equal heroism now will bring back the


voyagers for whose return some anxiety


will be felt four or five months hence,
if not sooner. In the second voyage
DIR. Kane and his party encountered
cold never before endured, the ther-
mometer indicating sometimes from GO
to Is degrees below zero, with hunger.
thirst and disease added. More than
two months of each year they existed in
total darkness, then came the first ink
lings of twilight. For 124 days the
sun was below the horizon, and 14O
passed before his rays reached the rocky
shadowings of the brig. With the in
creasing darkness came increasing dis
ease. Animal life is described as Ian
gushing, not for want of sufficient
exercise, for their whole life was one
continuous round of exertion when dis
ease did not prevent, not for want of
pure and unadulterated air, but for life
giving influences of the sun. Remarks
scattered through the pages of both
DR.. Kane's Journals indicate that the
continued darkness Influenced the ply
siological state of the system, and gave
rise to the various diseases suffered by
himself and companions. In his mar
rative of the first Grinnel expedition
he notices the peculiar paleness which
was produced by the perpetual night.
Under date of December 81, the day
preceding their ''solisticial day of dark
ness" he writes, after noticing the
bloodless appearance of himself and
companions :


SIN truth, we were all of us at this
time undergoing changes unconsciously.
The hazy obscurity of the nights we
had gone through made them darker
than the corresponding nights of Parry.
The complexions of my comrades and
my own, too, were toned down to
peculiar waxy paleness. Our eyes were
more recessed, and strangely clear.
Complaints of shortness of breath be-
came general our appetite was almost
ludicrOusly changed, and
or inclination for food was, at best,
very slight More than this, our COM
pIete solitude, combined with the per-
manent darkness, began to effect our
morale" Again, January 22d, 81 long
for day. The anomalous host of evils
that hang about this vegetation i'll dark
ness are showing themselves in all their
forms. My scurvy patients, those I
mean on the sick list, with all the care
it is possible to give them, are perhaps
no worse but pains in the joints, rheu-
matism coughs, loss of appetite, and
general debility, extend even to the
whole company. We are
CHASTITY set of pale faces, and none paler
than myself"


In his Arctic expedition" he emu
merated other signs of disease, and re-
fers to its influences on the brain and to
a epileptic tendency which was observed
in some instances. Even the dogs,
which he had taken to participate in his
explorations, were particularly effected
by it. "The influence" says he, "of
this long, intense darkness was most
depressing. Even our dogs, although
the greater part of them were natives of
the Arctic Circle, were unable to with
stand it, most of them died from an
anomalous form of disease, to which l
am satisfied the absence of light con-
tributed as much as the extreme cold.
I may recur to the influence
which the long winter night exerted on
the health of the much valued animals.
The subject has some interesting bear
ings, but content myself for the pre-
sent with transcribing a passage for my
Journal. To-day I give up
the last hope of saving them Che dogs.
Their disease is as clearly mortal as in
the case of any human being. The
more material functions of the poor
brutes go on without interruption they
eat voraciously, retain their strength,
and sleep we'll But all the indications
beyond this go to prove that the original
epilepsy which was the first indication
of brain disease among them has been
followed by true lunacy. They bark
prodigiously at nothing and walk In
straight and curved lines with anxious
and unwearying perseverance. They
fawn upon you without seeming to
appreciate the notice you give them in
return, pushing their heads against
your person or osciliating with a strange
pantomime of fear. Sometimes they
remain for hours in moody silence, and
then start off bowling as if pursued,
and run up and down for hours.
Generally they perish with symptoms
resembling locked jaw, in less than
thirty-six hours after the attack. :"


With all this untold amount of bodily
and mental suffering, and desolation
and disease, endured by these ice
bound voyagers, in this dark and cheer
less region, it is not singular that they
should hail, with exceeding great JOY,
the approach of light Says DIR. Kane,
"The day is beginning to glow with
the approaching sun. The sun, at noon,
has an almost orange tinge. In ten
days his direct rays will reach our hill
tops, and in week after he will be
dispensing his blessed medicine among
our sufferers. The coming sun viii
open appliances of moral help to the
sick, and give energy to the hygenic re-
sorts which I am arranging at the mo-
ment. For the last ten days
we have been watching the growing
warmth of the landscape, as it emerged
from buried shadows through all the
stages of distinctness of an India-ink
washing, step by step, into the sharp,
bold definition of a desolate harbor
scene. We have marked every dash of
color, which the Great Painter in his
benevolence vouchsafed us and now
empurpled hues, clear, unmistakable,
the spreading lake, the Pickering yell
low peering at all these poor wretches
everything seemed superlative lustre
and unspeakable glory.


st saw him (the sun) once more, "
says he, "and upon a projecting crag
nestled in the sunshine. It was like
bathing in perfumed water.


-Carbonic Acid in the Human Body.
The qnantity of carbonic acid exhaled
in a given time from the skin of a man
has been made the subject of some curl
GUS researches by Herr Aubert, the re-
suit of which appears in the Archiv fur
PhysioIogie. The experiments were
carefully made, it is stated, in an air
tight chamber, in which the subject for
experiment was seated, and through
which current of air, freed from car
bonic acid, was steadily passing, while
the proportion of carbonic acid in the
air on leaving the chamber was esti-
mated by transmission through Eulbed