STATE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. clxxi^ 
I 
than three hours, very active inflammation had supervened, extending high 
up the arm, and soon afterwards each hand, from the wrist downward, 
was enclosed in a bladder, containing upward of a pint of viscid serous fluid. 
There were, however, three of the fingers of one hand, and two of the other, 
in which this vesication did not form ; they continued cold, and perfectly 
insensible ; and whilst arterial action was powerful, as far as the first joints of 
these fingers, the vessels of their extremities were in a perfect state of 
collapsion. During the employment of antiphlogistic remedies to reduce the 
inflammatory symptoms, various stimuli were used ineffectually, to restore 
animation to the fingers ; when the inflammation began to subside, a sepa- 
ration took place between the dead and the living parts, and eventually the 
amputation of them became necessary. 
A private marine of the Griper had also one of his hands frozen in a 
similar manner, and with a like result. Mr. Beverly had to amputate three 
or four of the fingers. i 
The majority of this sort of injuries took place in the early part of the 
winter, when the men had not learnt the absolute necessity of extreme 
caution. The fishermen’s boots which they wore, were ill calculated to 
preserve the warmth of the feet, being formed of hard leather, saturated with 
salt and grease, and often made too small to admit of a sufficient quantity of 
stockings to counteract the property they possessed, of being too good con- 
ductors of heat. It was not uncommon to see the toes, stockings, and boots 
cemented together merely by the freezing of the cutaneous exudations of the 
feet. By a little care, these accidents became less frequent, and subsequently, 
after Captain Parry had substituted canvass boots in lieu of the leathern, not 
one case of the kind appeared. 
Such were the casualties that formed the sick list for the first three months 
of the winter ; casualties, which from the experience gained by the officers 
and seamen in the late voyage, may be expected to be totally avoided in any 
succeeding one ; in fact, the preventive means are so completely within 
control, that it is only in the event of some contingency similar to that which 
y 
