EFFECTS OF COLD. 



123 



long continued^ the powers of the whole nervous 

 system yield ; a torpor of the animal functions 

 ensues ; the actions of the muscles become fee- 

 ble, and scarcely obedient to the will ; an un- 

 conquerable languor and indisposition to motion 

 succeed ; and drowsiness comes on, ending in 

 sleep, from which the person, unless speedily 

 roused, frequently awakes no more."^ The 

 strong propensity to sleep, following the anxiety 

 and lassitude experienced at an earlier period, is 

 noticed by most writers as a precursor of immi- 

 nent danger ; and it is certainly a symptom of 

 usual occurrence. 



Baron Larrey, in describing the manner in 

 which many of the French soldiers perished from 

 the severity of the cold in Russia, remarks, that 

 their death was preceded by a paleness of the 

 countenance, by a sort of idiotism, difficulty of 



* See Rees's Cyclopaedia, art. Cold ; and a description of 

 the effects of cold at Terra del Fuego, on the persons who 

 landed there with Dr. Solander and Sir J. Banks, as detailed 

 in Captain Cook's first voyage. 



