ng heat, and perhaps by increasing in some degree the
secretion of sensorial power in the brain. But the contrary must happen
when taken immoderately, and not at due intervals. A well attested history
was once related to me of two men, who set out on foot to travel in the
snow, one of whom drank two or three glasses of brandy before they began
their journey, the other contented himself with his usual diet and
potation; the former of whom perished in spite of any assistance his
companion could afford him; and the other performed his journey with
safety. In this case the sensorial power was exhausted by the unnecessary
motions of incipient intoxication by the stimulus of the brandy, as well as
by the exertions of walking; which so weakened the dram-drinker, that the
cold sooner destroyed him; that is, he had not power to produce sufficient
muscular or arterial action, and in consequence sufficient heat, to supply
the great expenditure of it. Hence the capillaries of the skin first cease
to act, and become pale and empty; next those which are immediately
associated with them, as the extremities of the pulmonary artery, as
happens on going into the cold bath. By the continued inaction of these
parts of the vascular system the blood becomes accumulated in the internal
arteries, and the brain is supposed to be affected by its compression;
because these patients are said to sleep, or to become apoplectic, before
they die. I overtook a fishman asleep on his panniers on a very cold frosty
night, but on waking him he did not appear to be in any degree of stupor.
See Class I. 2. 2. 1.

When travellers are benighted in deep snow, they might frequently be saved
by covering themselves in it, except a small aperture for air; in which
situation the lives of hares, sheep, and other animals, are so often
preserved. The snow, both in respect to its component parts, and to the air
contained in its pores, is a bad conductor of heat, and will therefore well
keep out the external cold; and as the water, when part of it dissolves, is
attracted into the pores of the remainder of it, the situation of an animal
beneath it is perfectly dry; and, if he is in contact with the earth, he is
in a degree of heat between 48, the medium heat of the earth, and 32, the
freezing point; that is, in 40 degrees of heat, in which a man thus covered
will be as warm as in bed. See Botan. Garden, V. II. notes on Anemone,
Barometz, and Muschus. If these facts were mor