"
Now all actions of the afflicted manifested mental paralysis and the
highest degree of apathy.
This condition resembles that of extreme old age, when mind and body return
to the state of childhood.
The bodies of those suffering from intense cold were shriveled and
wrinkled. Men formerly models of bodily and mental strength, hardened in
war, now staggered along, leaning on a stick, wailing and lamenting
childlike, begging for a piece of bread, and if something to eat was given
to them they burst out in really childish joy, not seldom shedding tears.
The faces of these unfortunates were deadly pale, the features strangely
distorted. Lads resembled men of 80 years of age and presented a
cretin-like appearance; the lips were bluish, the eyes dull, without
luster, and constantly lachrymal; the veins very small, scarcely visible;
the extremities cold; the pulse could not be felt, neither at the radius
nor at the temple bone, somnolency was general.
Often it happened that the moment they sank to the ground the lower
extremities became paralyzed; soon after that, a few drops of blood from
the nose indicated the moribund condition.
Severed were all bonds of brotherly love, extinguished all human feeling
toward those who, from exhaustion, had fallen on the road.
Many men, among them his former best comrades and even relatives, would
fall upon such an unfortunate one to divest him of his clothing and other
belongings, to leave him naked on the snow, inevitably to die.
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