Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 November 1895 — COLD THAT BURNS. [ARTICLE]

COLD THAT BURNS.

The Feeling and Effects of Cold Resemble Those of Scorching. , Burning is usually associated with heat, and It seems a misnomer to speak of cold burns. Chemists tell us that There Is really no such thingas cold, which i.s relative heat, and that the lowest temperature yet registered is some degrees above absolute cold. At the last meeting of the Swiss Society of Natural Sciences at Lausanne, M. Raoul Pictet gave some particulars concerning cold burns experienced by himself and assistants during his investigations of the lowest temperature attainable; There are two degrees of burns. In one case the skin reddens at the first and burns blue the following day, and subsequently the area of the spot expands until it becomes nearly double . its original dimensions. The "“Bufh7’~which is usually not healed until five or six weeks after its occurrence, is accompanied by a very painful itching on the affected spot and the surrounding tissues. When the burning is more serious, produce:! by longer contact with the cold body, a burn of ‘lie second degree is experienced. In this case the skin is rapidly detached and all parts reached by the cold behave like foreign bodies. A long and stubborn suppuratldh sets in, which does not seem to accelerate the reconstruction of the tissues. The wounds are malignant, and scar very slowly in a manner entirely different from burns produced by fire. On one occasion, when M. Pictet was suffering with a severe burn due to a drop of liquid air, he accidentally scorched the same hand very seriously. The scorched portion was healed in ten or twelve days, but the wound produced by the cold burn was open for upward of six months. In order to try the effect of radiation in dry cold air, M. Pictet held his bare arm up to the elbow in a refrigerating vessel maintained at 105 degrees; when a sensation of a peculiarly distinct character was felt over the whole skin and throughout the muscles. jAlFfirsf this sensation was not disagreeable, but gradually it became decidedly so, and, after three or four minutes the skin turned blue, and the pain became more =dntenge_a.n d dcep_ : se a ted. On wl thdr awIng the arm from the refrigerator at tlie end of ten minutes a strong reaction was experienced, accompanied, by a superficial inflammation of the skin.— Newcastle (England) Chronicle.