482 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



the well furreti gentrj with the 

 upper part of their faces in masks, 

 with coverings fitted to their ears, 

 and applying their fingers with 

 ikicessant care to every part of 

 their visages in succession : or 

 sometimes, which is the best pre- 

 set vative for travelling, theirskins, 

 where exposed, were greased with 

 oil. Salutations in the street at 

 this period are short; scarce a 

 word or an answer ; and the 

 greatest assemblage of people (for 

 the groups are seldom numerous) 

 can be compared only to a meeting 

 at a deaf and dumb asylum. A 

 north-east wind, during such 

 weather as this, is a chill blast of 

 death that evceeds in horror any 

 other curse of l»eaven. 



It is not witlunit reason that so 

 much care is used to prevent the 

 face from being taken by the 

 fiost, for .IS the skin is destroyed 

 by its action, a blemish like the 

 sore of a burn serves to recal the 

 memory of the accident during 

 the whole of the succeeding sum- 

 mer. As to the general effects of 

 the constant cold on the body, I 

 cannot help remarking that the 

 women of all classes both liere, 

 and as 1 afterwards observed in 

 Russia, seemed to be much less 

 affected thau the men. It may 

 be that they seldom stay out of 

 door* for so great a length of 

 time as the other sex, but it is 

 certainly true that the influence of 

 tl»e climate on the body variies 

 much in degree upon different 

 habits ; but I think I may be 

 warianted in saying, that it is 

 most commonly manifested in a 

 determination of blood to the 

 hejwl, and a tendency to lethargy, 

 but this is- l>y no means universal. 



The extreme accumulation of 



animal electricity in the frame is 

 also remarkable ; the natural 

 moisture necessary to carry it off" 

 not huving been produced during 

 the day, it is retained in great 

 quantities, which are visibly dis- 

 charged at night on undressing in 

 a warm room. 



The power of the constitution 

 to bear against cold, contrary to 

 vulgar ideas, is weakened gia- 

 dually more and more by en- 

 durance ; the frame is enervated , 

 in artificial life at least, and a 

 stranger, instead of growing more 

 hardy and secure, braves the 

 sharpness of the first winter with 

 much greater success than he can 

 attempt a- aeccmd year. In the 

 course of the first spring, indeed, 

 after his arrival, he feels infinitely 

 more sensible of its^injury than he 

 had been of a similar temperatui e 

 in the preceding autumn. 



Several striking natural pheno- 

 mena attend this season : syn.p- 

 toms of a degree of rigour of 

 which an Englishman hafr little or 

 no conception. The smoke seems 

 to ascend from the chimney-tops 

 a dense compact cloud, and the 

 atmosphere itself, though not ob- 

 scuie, assumes a heavy aspect, 

 more particularly made observable 

 at the rising and setting of the 

 sun. While no sooner has the 

 thermometer fallen to 20'" — (Cel- 

 sius), or 4'^ below the zero of 

 Fahrenheit's scale, than the cel- 

 lars of the houses emit a strortg 

 viipour to the streets ; and all tlie 

 streams of water, whose rapidity 

 is sufficient to check congelation, 

 give out in similar way a j)ower- 

 ful steam during day and night 

 from tiieir surface. It was an ex- 

 traordinary t-pectacle to see tlie 

 bridge at Stockholm, through 



Avhich 



