PHYSIOLOGY OF FREEZING. 681 



start a habit toward certain objects and inhibit a habit toward certain 

 others. Usually this is the case ; but, in the one-sided development of 

 civilized life, it happens that the timely age goes by in a sort of starva- 

 tion of objects, and the individual then grows up with gaps in his psy- 

 chic constitution which future experiences can never fill. Compare the 

 accomplished gentleman with the poor artisan or tradesman of a city : 

 during the adolescence of the former, objects appropriate to his grow- 

 ing interests, bodily and mental, were offered as fast as the interests 

 awoke, and, as a consequence, he is armed and equipped at every angle 

 to meet the world. Sport came to the rescue and completed his edu- 

 cation where real things were lacking. He has tasted of the essence 

 of every side of human life, being sailor, hunter, athlete, scholar, 

 fighter, talker, dandy, man of affairs, etc., all in one. Over the 

 city poor boy's youth no such golden opportunities were hung, and in 

 his manhood no desires for most of them exist. Fortunate it is for 

 him if gaps are the only anomalies his instinctive life presents ; per- 

 versions are too often the fruit of his unnatural bringing up. 



PHYSIOLOGY OF FREEZING. 



By Dr. von NUSSBAUM. 



SERIOUS ills often result from exposure to freezing, merely be- 

 cause many people do not know how to guard against troubles so 

 induced. Delicate white faces .are sometimes disfigured by the nose 

 turning red ; this is liable to happen to one who has suffered from 

 freezing of the organ, usually at the first snow-fall, perhaps even in 

 midsummer ; the hands may display, at these times, bluish-red and 

 swollen fingers, and all this only because at some time in early youth, 

 when these members had become frozen, proper care was not taken of 

 them, and because there was nobody at hand who could offer sound 

 advice. Chilblains, when wrongly treated, become very troublesome, 

 and may lead to the loss of fingers or toes by mortification ; and such 

 an occurrence can even endanger life. If, during intense cold, we are 

 subjected to influences that tend to lower our vitality, we may fall 

 into a sleep, from which perhaps we may never awake. 



No man knows in what circumstances he may at some time be 

 placed. The courageous soldiers who, with Napoleon I, left the burning 

 city of Moscow, probably never dreamed, while in sunny France, that 

 they would sink down on snow-banks, and fall into a sleep that ends 

 but in death ! Many of them could perhaps have saved their lives if 

 they had ever heard of the proper precautions to be taken against 

 this danger. Some persons think that the drinking of strong liquor 

 will enable them to resist the cold more readily ; this, however, is 

 very delusive. Even if we increase the activity of some organs by a 



