Rhases directs us to lay a person congealed with cold in a warm
apartment, and to rub with hot hands the whole of his body, with the
exception of the head, which is to be warmed with hot cloths. Persons
having warm bodies are then to lie down in bed beside him; and he is to
take a draught containing assafœtida, myrrh, pepper, and strong wine.
When the respiration is fairly restored, he is to take some nourishing
food and wine; and is then to be covered up with many blankets, and left
to sleep. When he awakes, he is to be put into a hot bath, and after
remaining for a long time in it, he is to be strongly rubbed when he
leaves it with calefacient oil, such as the oil of lilies or narcissus,
to which costus, castor, musk, and spurge have been added. (Ad Mansor.
vi, 5.)
Let the reader remark the similarity of the ancient practice in the cases
of persons who have been exposed to great cold, and of those who have
been poisoned with opium. (See Book Fifth, 43.) Galen remarks, that the
effects of opium, and of the exposure of the body to extreme cold, are
very like. (Comment. in Epidem. Hippocrat.)
In the 4th book of Xenophon’s ‘Anabasis,’ there is an interesting
description of the effects resulting from the exposure of the Grecian
army to extreme cold, and the means which they took to preserve
themselves from being injured by it. The historian relates that they
rubbed themselves before the fire with an ointment composed of swines’
seam, and oils of sesame, of bitter almonds, and of turpentine. The
Carthaginian soldiers of Hannibal, in like manner, when exposed to great
cold among the mountains of Italy, rubbed their bodies with oil as a
protection from its effects, and with great success, if we may believe
Florus the historian: he says, “tunc callidissimi hostes frigidum et
nivalem nacti diem, quam se ignibus prius, oleoque fovissent, (horribile
dictu!) homines a meridie, et sole venientes, nostra nos hieme vicerunt.”
(Hist. Rom. ii, 6.) It is worthy of remark, by the way, that Baron
Larrey, in his account of the retreat of the French army from Moscow,
states that the inhabitants of southern climates endured the cold better
than those of the north. The fact that the Carthaginian soldiers rubbed
their bodies with oil on the occasion we have mentioned is stated also by
Polybius (Hist. iii, 72), and by Livy (Hist. Roman, xxi, 55.)
Quintus Curtius relates that the soldiers of Alexander the Great rubbed
their bodies with the juice of sesame, instead of oil, when exposed to
intense cold while crossing the Bactrian mountains. (vii, 15.)
Pliny, with his usual terseness, thus states the powers of oil in
protecting the body both from cold and heat: “Oleo natura tepefacere
corpus, et contra algores munire; eidemque fervores capitis refrigerare.”
(Hist. Nat. xv, 6.)