CHAPTER II 



ACTION OF COLD ACCOMPANIED BY 

 ICE FORMATION 



The theories on the mechanism of death by freezing 

 attribute the lethal injury to the following various causes 

 which will serve as a basis for our classification : 



1. A mere withdrawal of energy ; 



2. The attainment of a minimal temperature ; 



3. Mechanical injury ; 



4. Too rapid thawing; 



5. Dehydration; 



6. Various physiological, physical and chemical 

 changes. 



Often, when the experimental data are too few or too 

 inconsistent to justify a pertinent discussion, we shall 

 limit ourselves to a mere presentation of the theories and 

 of the facts recorded in the literature. 



I. THEOKV ATTKIBUTING DEATH TO A MERE 

 WITHDRAWAL OF ENERGY 



In the last analysis, all the theories to be reviewed 

 hereafter attribute injury and death to the withdrawal 

 of energy, that is, to cooling, but the present theory con- 

 siders the withdrawal of energy as the immediate and 

 final lethal mechanism, while the others assume that cool- 

 ing causes some intermediate action, such as the forma- 

 tion of ice, which is then considered the immediate lethal 

 factor. 



The idea that death might result from a decrease in 

 the energy content of an organism is perhaps the first to 

 come to one's mind when one considers death by cold in 

 the warm-blooded animals. These creatures constantly 

 produce energy so as to maintain their body at a tem- 

 perature higher than that of their milieu. They compete 

 with the milieu and, if they fail in this competition, death 



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