334 CONGELATION. 



friction should be of the gentlest nature; but if it 

 can be obtained probably the safest thing is the very 

 coldest water, in which the hand or foot may be 

 immersed, and the temperature of it slowly raised, to 

 ,50 or 60 Fahr., and the circulation thus very gradu- 

 ally restored. The return of sensation is accompanied 

 by considerable pain in the part, and if the pain be 

 very violent, it is generally to be regarded as a sign 

 that warmth is being too rapidly applied. Sir George 

 Nares expresses himself altogether against the use of 

 snow, which in the far north he considers far too 

 cold for the purpose, and for superficial frost-bites he 

 advises very gentle friction by the hand to the 

 affected part, as any rough handling would certainly 

 remove the skin. * Probably the mere application of 

 the warm hand for a time, without rubbing, would 

 prove as efficacious, and safer. 



Speaking of cases of frost-bite the Hon. Ralph 

 Abercromby says: 



" In extreme cases, when the flesh is thawed, it swells enorm- 

 ously, and rises in huge horrible-looking blisters, and gives 

 intense pain. If the bitten part turns black in a day or two, 

 it is all over with it, and nothing but amputation remains. 

 Fever often supervenes at this stage; and during the Napo- 

 leonic wars at the commencement of this century the French lost 

 thousands of men in Germany from ' fievre de congelation.' " f 



Congelation, we may observe, is the freezing of a limb, 

 as contra-distinguished from superficial frost-bite of the 

 external surface. 



Severe cases of frost-bites or congelation, as we 



* Narrative of a Voyage to the Polar Sea, by Captain Sir George 

 S. Nares, R.N., 1878, Vol. i, p. 264. 



f Seas and Skies in Many Latitudes, by the Hon. Ralph Abercromby, 

 1888, pp. 7, 8. 



