He
wandered over the prairie that day and night, and the following
four days, through the storm, freezing his limbs, nose, ears, and
cheeks, taking no food or water until, on December 16th, he was
found in a dying condition by Indian scouts, and taken to a
station-house on the road. He did not reach the hospital at Fort
Ridgely until the night of December 24th--eleven days after his
first exposure. He was almost completely exhausted, and, after
thawing the ice from his clothes, stockings, and boots,--which
had not been removed since December 13th,--it was found that both
hands and forearms were completely mortified up to the middle
third, and both feet and legs as far as the upper third; both
knees over and around the patellae, and the alae and tip of the
nose all presented a dark bluish appearance and fairly
circumscribed swelling. No evacuation of the bowels had taken
place for over two weeks, and as the patient suffered from
singultus and constant pain over the epigastric region, a light
cathartic was given, which, in twenty-four hours, gave relief.
The four frozen limbs were enveloped in a solution of zinc
chlorid. The frozen ears and cheeks healed in due time, and the
gangrenous parts of the nose separated and soon healed, with the
loss of the tip and parts of the alae, leaving the septum
somewhat exposed.
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