If you look attentively at a window for about two minutes, then cast your eyes upon a sheet of white paper, the shape of the window frames will be perfectly visible upon the paper; those parts which express the wood work appearing brighter than the other parts. The parts of the optic nerve on which the image of the frame falls, are covered by the wood work from the action of the light; the excitability of these parts will therefore accumulate; and the parts of the paper which fall upon them must of course appear brighter. If a person be brought out of a dark room where he has been confined, into a field covered with snow, when the sun shines, it has been known to affect him so much as to deprive him of sight altogether. This law is well exemplified when we come into a dark room in the day time. At first we can see nothing; but with the absence of light the excitability accumulates, and we begin to have an imperfect glimpse of the objects around us; after a while the excitability of the retina is so far accumulated, and we become so sensible of the feeble light reflected from the surfaces of bodies, that we can discern their shapes, and sometimes even their colours. Let us next consider what happens with respect to heat, which is a uniform and active stimulus in promoting life. The extensive influence of heat upon animal life is evident from its decay and suspension during winter, in certain animals, and from its revival upon the approach and action of the vernal sun. If this stimulus is for some time abstracted from the whole body, or from any part, the excitability accumulates, or, in other words, if the body has been for some time exposed to cold, it is more liable to be affected by heat afterwards applied. Of this also you may be convinced by an easy experiment. Put one of your hands into cold water, and then put both into water which is considerably warm: the hand which has been in the cold water will feel much warmer than the other. If you handle some snow in one hand while you keep the other in the bosom, that it may be of the same heat with the body, and then bring both within the same distance of the fire, the heat will affect the cold hand infinitely more than the warm one. This is a circumstance of the utmost importance, and ought always to be carefully attended to. When a person has been exposed to a severe degree of cold for some time, he ought to be cautious how he comes near a fire, for his excitability will be so much accumulated that the heat will act very violently, often producing a great degree of inflammation, and even sometimes of mortification. This is a very common cause of chilblains, and other similar inflammations. When the hands, or any other parts of the body, have been exposed to a violent cold, they ought first to be put in cold water, or even rubbed with snow, and exposed to warmth in the gentlest manner possible.