Freezing an Easy Death

1914

Freezing to death, writes a medical authority, is preceded by a drowsiness which makes the end painless — the body actually feels warm and goes comfortably to sleep. Experiments have been made with animals to show just how freezing to death proceeds.

In one of these experiments, in which the animal was placed in a temperature of 125 to 150 degrees below zero, the breathing and heart beats at first were quickened, the organic heat of the body actually rising above normal.

This rising showed a sudden and an intense effort on the part of functions to preserve the body's temperature. Then the violent heart action gave out suddenly and death came when the temperature of the body dropped to 71 degrees.


In a "Higher" Grade

That juvenile human nature remains pretty much the same always would seem freshly indicated by the quaint incident related in a famous author's recent reminiscences of his childhood. The said author had an older brother whom he admired hugely, and whose society he desired to enjoy as much as might be. There came a time, however, when the older boy revolted against the too frequent companionship of the younger, and thus gravely explained the grounds of his superiority:

"I play with boys who curse and swear."