Littell's Living Age/Volume 126/Issue 1633/The Influence of Arctic Cold on Man
THE INFLUENCE OF ARCTIC COLD ON MAN.
Lieutenant Payer, the Austrian Arctic explorer, has been laying some of the results of his explorations before the Geographical Society of Vienna. Referring to the influence of extreme cold on the human organism, he related that on March 14, 1874, he and his companions 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 suns, 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 tobacco in short pipes, for very soon nothing but a piece of ice remained in the mouth. The metal of the instruments was just like red-hot iron to the touch, as were some lockets, which some of the travellers romantically, but imprudently, continued to wear next the skin. M. Payer says that so great an amount of cold paralyzes the will, and that, under its influence, men from the unsteadiness of their gait, their stammering talk, and the slowness of their mental operations, seem as if they were intoxicated. Another effect of cold is a tormenting thirst, which is due to the evaporation of the moisture of the body. It is unwholesome 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° to 40° below zero makes it taste like molten metal. Snow-eaters in the North are considered as feeble and effeminate, in the same way as an opium-eater in the East. The groups of travellers who traversed the snow-fields were surrounded by thick vapours formed by the emanations from their bodies, which became condensed notwithstanding 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, adisagreeable sensation of dryness was felt. Every sound diffused itself to a very long distance; an ordinary 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 become greatly enfeebled in these latitudes, strength gives way under the paralyzing influence of the cold, the eyes involuntarily close and become frozen. When locomotion stops, the sole of the foot becomes insensible. 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 secretions of the eyes and nose always increase, 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 plan of anointing and blackening the body are pronounced to have no real value.
END OF VOL. XI.