An analysis of the water used during
their confinement showed an almost total absence of organic
matter and only a slight residue of calcium salts.
Joanna Crippen lay six days in the snow without nutriment, being
overcome by the cold while on the way to her house; she recovered
despite her exposure. Somis, physician to the King of Sardinia,
gives an account of three women of Piedmont, Italy, who were
saved from the ruins of a stable where they had been buried by an
avalanche of snow, March 19, 1765. thirty-seven days before.
Thirty houses and 22 inhabitants were buried in this catastrophe,
and these three women, together with a child of two, were
sheltered in a stable over which the snow lodged 42 feet deep.
They were in a manger 20 inches broad and upheld by a strong
arch. Their enforced position was with their backs to the wall
and their knees to their faces. One woman had 15 chestnuts, and,
fortunately, there were two goats near by, and within reach some
hay, sufficient to feed them for a short time. By milking one of
the goats which had a kid, they obtained about two pints daily,
upon which they subsisted for a time. They quenched their thirst
with melted snow liquefied by the heat of their hands.
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