F R O 
1)1 iiigin" it to market. It is brought from the remotefl: 
provinces, and large fupplies arrive at St. Peterfbiirg, 
even from the frozen ocean in the north, and from tiie 
borders of the Cafpian fea, in the foiith. The great 
market at St. Peteffbnrg begins juft before the Chridmas 
holydays ; the frozen provihons are upon an average about 
tliirtv per cent, cltcaper than if frelh kilted ; and it would 
be difficiilt even for a nice epicure to perceive the differ¬ 
ence. Pork, fidi, and game, appear to fnffer lead by 
freezing. In keeping, great care is reqnifite not to ex- 
rofe it to any warmth ; and jud before coi.king, they thaw 
it in cold water. The market for frozen providons covers 
feverat acres of ground ; and from the piles of animals, 
birds, and fitli, vvitli their feveral fkins, feathers, and 
fcales, on, prefents a modcurious and finguLr appearance. 
A m.irket of this kind can only exift in countries in which 
the winters are remarkably cold : but it is fiirprifing that, 
when we are fo well acquainted with the effects of conge¬ 
lation in retarding animal putrefaclipn, more ice-houi'es 
(which are cheap edi.fces) are not erefted ; for wh.at uti¬ 
lity in the midlt'of fummer might not be derived from a 
dock of ice in prefervlng meat frefli, and in preventing the 
produce of the dairy from becoming rancid; what bene¬ 
fit would it be to the farmer to be able to cool the atmof- 
phere ofltis dairy, by throwing in quantities of ice; and 
how eadly woulcl he convey it in a perfeif; date to the 
greated didance, by packing it up in frozen water ! a cir- 
ctimdance which, in this age of improvement and luxury, 
cannot, we imagine, be long overlooked. 
The great power of frod on vegetables is a thing fuffi- 
ciently known ; hut the dilferences between the frods of 
a levere winter, and thofe whiclt happen in the fpring 
mornings, in their effedfs on plants and trees, were never 
perfectly explained, till by Meff. Du Hamel and Buffon, 
in the Memoirs of tlie Paris academy. The frods of fe- 
vere winters are tlierein fliewn to be much more terrible 
than thofe of the fpring, as they bring on a privation of all 
the prodmfts of the tenderer part of the vegetable world ; 
but then they are not frequent, fuch winters happening 
perhaps but once in an age ; while the frods of the fpring 
are in reality greater injuries to us than thefe, becaule 
they are every year repeated. In regard to trees, 
the great dift'erence is this, that the frods of fevere win¬ 
ters aff'eft even their wood, their trunks and large branch¬ 
es; whereas thofe of the fpring have only power to de- 
llroy the buds. The winter frods happening at a time 
when mod of the trees inour gardens have neither leaves, 
flowers, nor fruits, upon them, and have their buds fo 
hard as to be proof againd (light injuries of weather, efpe- 
cially if the preceding fummer has not been too wet ; in 
this date, if there are no unlucky circumd.mccs attending, 
the generality of trees bear moderate winters very well ; 
but hard frods, which happen late in the winter, caufe 
very great injuries even to thofe trees which they do not 
utterly dedroy. 
Frod, as is well known in Scotland, is particularly de- 
ftriuflivc to the blolfom of fruit-trees; and the following 
method of fecuring fuch trees from being damaged by 
early frods may be acceptable to many of our readers. A 
rope is to be interwoven among the branches of the tree, 
and one end of it brought down fo as to be immerfed in a 
bucket of water. The rope, it is faid, will ait as a con- 
dtiilor, and convey the elieils of the frod from the tree to 
l!ie water. This idea is not new ; for the following paf- 
fage may be found in Colerus : “ If you dig a trench 
around the root of a tree, and fill it with water, or keep 
the roots mold till it has bloomed, it will not be injured 
by the frod. Or, in fpring, fufpend a vefTel filled with 
water from the tree. If you wifh to preferve the bloom 
from being hurt by the frod, place a vefTel of water below 
it, and the frod will fall into it.” Phil. Mag. No. n. 
P-emarkable indances of fevere frods in Europe, and 
chiefly in England, are as follow : In the 
Year 220, Frod in Britain that laded five months. 
250, The Thames frozen nine weeks. 
FRO 
Year 291, Mod rivers in Britain frozen fix weeks. 
359, Severe froft in Scotland for fourteen weeks. 
401, The Euxine Sea frozen over for twenty days. 
30S, The rivers in Britain frozen for two months. 
558, Tlie Danube quite frozen over. 
' 695, Thames frozen fix weeks ; booths built on it. 
759, Frod from Off. t till Feb. 26, 760. 
763, Frod at Condantinople, where the two feas 
were frozen over for upwards of a hundred 
miles. 
827, Frod in England for nine weeks. 
859, Carriages ufed on the Adriatic fea, which was 
completely frozen over. 
90S, Mod rivers in England frozen for two months, 
923, The Thames frozen thirteen weeks. 
987, Frod laded I 20 days : began Dec. 22. 
998, The Thames frozen five weeks. 
1035, Severe frod on June 24 : the corn and fruits 
nearly all dedroyed. 
1063, The'ri:ames frozen fourteen weeks. 
1076, Frod in England from November till April. 
1114, Several wooden bridges carried away by ice. 
1205, Frod from January 14 till March 22. 
1407, Frod that laded fifteen weeks, accompanied 
with a deep fnow, and killed almod all the 
fmall birds. 
1434, Frotn November 24 till February to. The 
Thames was frozen down to Gravefend, and 
feveral miles below ; during which all mer- 
chandife was obliged to he brought to Lon¬ 
don through Kent and ElTex, by laiid-car- 
^ riage. 
1683, Frod for thirteen weeks, Thames froze over. 
1709, Severe frod for many weeks, with deep fnow. 
. i7i5> The fame for many weeks. 
i739> Eroze for nine weeks, began December 24. 
This is generally called the hard frod of 
1740, when all forts of carriages went upon 
the Thames, and all manner of perfonswere 
carried on upon the ice. 
1742, Severe frod for many weeks, 
1747, Severe frod in Ruflia, and the north of Europe. 
1734, Severe one in England. 
17C0, The fame in Germany. 
1775, The fame in England. 
17S8, Thames frozen below bridge; with booths 
and a fair on it. 
FROST'BITTEN, adj. Nipped or withered by the 
frod.—The leaves are apt to be too much f'rofibittai. Mor¬ 
timer. 
In the human fubjeft, particularly in cold countries, 
fometimes the vvhole limb, but more commonly the ex¬ 
tremities, become frod-bitten, and apparently dead. Per- 
fons thiks atfeCled are compared to cataleptic patients, but 
dill there is much difference between a catalepfy and a 
frojl-bitten cafe. Cold braces up the body when applied 
to it in a certain degree ; upon this condridtlon being in- 
creafed, the humours are carried in a larger quantity to 
the internal parts, and are principally accumulated in the 
head ; they fiagnate in the vellels of the brain, and didend 
them ; hence they produce a driflure in, or a compreflTion 
on, the nerves that arife from the brain, which is tlieori- 
gin of a catalepds, attended with an abolition of the fen- 
fes. The cold continuing, witii its effects jud mention¬ 
ed, at length there is an extravafation of the blood or fe- 
ruin in the head, by which the cerebellum is comprelTed, 
whence death enfues, which is udiered in by a lethargy, 
ending in apoplexy. 
When a man is pierced with cold, fo as to be benumb¬ 
ed, if he attempts to warm himlelf by the fire, pains are 
prefently produced in the part expofed to tfie heat, and a 
mortification is too often the conf'equence ; jud as is feen 
in frozen fruit, which if put into cold water that Is near 
freezing, it recovers, but if put into warm water, or in 
a warm place, it foon rots ; and if men, when too feverely 
1 , affefted 
