DEATH FROM COLD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1058, 1 February 1913, Page 4

DEATH FROM COLD.

I« death from cold painful ? This question has been exercising the minds of many people during the past few days, and a correspondent has satisfied himself that it is not. He says: “Dr. F. K. Kane, who conducted the second Greunell expedition to search the Arctic regions for traces of Sir John Franklin and his party, gives ample evidence in his well written diary that death from exposure in cold regions is practically painless. After Dr. Kane with his party had unsuccessfully searched for more than two years for evidence of the missing men, he was reluctantly compelled to give up on account of provisions giving out. He found it impossible to release his ship from the ice, and to avoid certain destruction of himself and parly, he decided to return over the ice packs and glaciers to the nearest whaling port situated in the far south of Greenland. It was a desperate undertaking with a handful of halt-starved men suffering as they were from scurvy and frost bile, and in view of the fact that some thousand miles had to be traversed. In addition to provisions and camp material the party had to drag on sledges two large 18 or 20 feet boats, as in the latter part of the journey these were necessary to gain the port. The journey was successfully accomplished in face of stupendous odds, and the party was saved. In some of the severe marches Dr. Kane tells how the men suffering from cold and privation became extremely drowsy, and prayed to be allowed to have a short sleep. The doctor with indomitable will, refused, and urged the men forward until some began to fall. Dr. Kane well knew that if men in such straits were allowed to slumber for more than a few minutes they would never awaken. When it was impossible to keep the men awake longer he would from time to time call a halt, and allow the weaker members to sleep for exactly two minutes. The sleepers were then rudely awakened by roughly shaking, hitting with sticks, or pricking with the point of a lancelet, and the march would be resumed for perhaps another half hour before a further halt would be allowed for a two minutes’ sleep. This proves that men suffering exhaustion quickly and calmly perish when once they cease active motion or exercise, though it may seem strange that excessive cold should induce so great a desire for sleep.”