Every peasant knows, if frozen meat, fruits, or roots of any kind, be brought near the fire, or put into warm water, they will be destroyed, by rottenness, or a kind of mortification; and that the only way to recover them, is to immerse them for some time in very cold water. The same observation holds with regard to animals in this condition.
When the hands or feet are greatly benumbed with cold, they ought either to be immersed in cold water, or rubbed with snow, till they recover their natural warmth and sensibility: after which the person may be removed into an apartment a little warmer, and may drink some cups of tea, or an infusion of elder flowers sweetened with honey. Every person must have observed, when his hands were even but slightly affected with cold, that the best way to warm them was by washing them in cold water, and continuing to rub them well for some time.
When a person has been so long exposed to the cold, that all appearances of life are gone, it will be necessary to rub him all over with snow or cold water; or, what will answer better, if it can be obtained, to immerse him in a bath of the very coldest water. There is the greatest encouragement to persist in the use of these means, as we are assured that persons who had remained in the snow, or had been exposed to the freezing air during five or six successive days, and who had discovered no marks of life for several hours, have nevertheless been revived.
I have always thought, that the whitloes, kibes, chilblains, and other inflammations of the extremities, which are so common among the peasants in the cold season, were chiefly occasioned by their sudden transitions from cold to heat. After they have been exposed to an extreme degree of cold, they immediately apply their hands and feet to the fire, or, if they have occasion, plunge them into warm water, by which means, if a mortification does not happen, an inflammation seldom fails to ensue. Most of the ill consequences from this quarter might be easily avoided, by only observing the precautions mentioned above.
EFFECTS OF EXTREME HEAT.
The effects of extreme heat, though not so common in this country, are no less fatal, and much more sudden than those of cold. In hot countries people frequently drop down dead in the streets, exhausted with heat and fatigue. In this case, if any warm cordial can be poured into the mouth it ought to be done. If this cannot be effected, they may be thrown up in form of a clyster. Volatile spirits, and other things of a stimulating nature, may be applied to the skin, which should be well rubbed with coarse-cloths, whipped with nettles, or other stimulating things. Some of the ancient physicians are said to have restored to life persons apparently dead, by beating them with rods.
CHAP. LIV.
OF FAINTING FITS, AND OTHER CASES WHICH REQUIRE IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE.
Strong and healthy persons, who abound with blood, are often seized with sudden fainting fits, after violent exercise, drinking freely of warm or strong liquors, exposure to great heat, intense application to study, or the like.
In such cases the patient should be made to smell to some vinegar. His temples, forehead, and wrists ought at the same time to be bathed with vinegar mixed with an equal quantity of warm water; and two or three spoonfuls of vinegar, with four or five times as much water, may, if he can swallow, be poured into his mouth.
If the fainting proves obstinate, or degenerates into a syncope, that is, an abolition of feeling and understanding, the patient must be bled. After the bleeding, a clyster will be proper, and then he should be kept easy and quiet, only giving him every half hour a cup or two of an infusion of any mild vegetable, with the addition of a little sugar and vinegar.