7. If cold thus acts on things without life, how much more must it influence living organisms and the power of man’s will! Cold lowers the beat of the pulse, weakens the bodily sensations, diminishes the capacity of movement and of enduring great fatigue. Of all the senses, taste and smell most lose their force and pungency, the mucous membrane being in a constant state of congestion and excessive secretion. After a time a decrease of muscular power is also perceptible. If one is exposed suddenly to an excessive degree of cold, involuntarily one shuts the mouth and breathes through the nose; the cold air seems at first to pinch and pierce the organs of respiration. The eyelids freeze even in calm weather, and to prevent their closing we have constantly to clear them from ice, and the beard alone is less frozen than other parts of the body, because the breath as it issues from the mouth falls down as snow. Snow-spectacles are dimmed by the moisture of the eyes, and when the thermometer falls 37° (C.) below zero they are as opaque as frost-covered windows. The cold, however, is most painfully felt in the soles of the feet, when there is a cessation of exercise. Nervous weakness, torpor, and drowsiness follow, which explains the connection which is usually found between resting and freezing. The most important point, in fact, for a sledge party, which has such exertions to make at a very low temperature, is to stand still as little as possible. The excessive cold which is felt in the soles of the feet during the noon-day rest is the main reason why afternoon marches make such a demand on the moral power. Great cold also alters the character of the excretions, thickens the blood, and increases the need of nourishment from the increased expenditure of carbon. And while perspiration ceases entirely, the secretion of the mucous membranes of the nose and eyes is permanently increased, and the urine assumes almost a deep red colour. At first the bowels are much confined, a state which, after continuing for five and sometimes eight days, passes into diarrhœa. The bleaching of the beard under these influences is a curious fact.