124 GOOD HEALTH 



while they were freezing to death. They did not know 

 that they had taken something that would put the heat 

 machinery out of order. They wanted to do all they 

 could to keep warm and safe, but they were ignorant 

 and it turned out that they did just the wrong thing. 



I suppose that hundreds of people make the same mis- 

 take every winter. It is hard for them to believe that 

 their feelings deceive them. But people who travel in 

 the coldest countries learn the lesson after a while. 



In a book by the great physician, Dr. Carpenter, I 

 read that there was a crew of sixty-six men from Den- 

 mark who tried to stay in Hudson Bay all winter. Now 

 the place is so far north and so cold that the men wished 

 to do everything to keep warm ; they therefore took a 

 load of alcoholic drink with them to help as much as 

 possible. No doubt they thought that the colder it was 

 the more they ought to drink, for that is just the mistake 

 a great many people make. 



Nevertheless, in spite of everything, these men died 

 one after another, and by the end of winter only two 

 were alive. At another time a crew of Englishmen went 

 to the same place, and they were just as anxious as the 

 others to keep warm and to keep alive, but they tried 

 the opposite plan about alcoholic drinks: they decided 

 not to take any with them. There were only twenty-two 

 men in this crew. They took no alcoholic drinks, and 

 when winter was over they sent the joyful news to their 



