“Dreadful to Behold”: Frostbite on the 1910–1913 British Antarctic Expedition

Abstract

ALTHOUGH ENVIRONMENTAL issues form an important component of public health practice, rarely is exposure to cold temperatures and cold-weather injury addressed within the public health context. Of particular importance in polar and other cold-weather regions is the impact of extreme cold on health and on prevention and treatment of cold weather injuries. Some of those lessons were learned, tragically, during the British Antarctic Expedition (BAE) of 1910 to 1913. The BAE was a large and complex effort with dual missions to further scientific research and explore the Antarctic continent. The BAE was inaugurated with great fanfare and optimism, though, ultimately, leader Robert Falcon Scott and four others died during their return journey from the South Pole to the expedition's base at Camp Evans. There were also many other debilitating but non-fatal cold weather-related injuries on the BAE. Examples range from Thomas Clissold's fall from an iceberg and his resulting concussion to Frank Debenham's knee injury from playing football on the ice, Edward Evans’ bout with scurvy, and many episodes of snowblindness and frostbite. One particularly significant event was the severe frostbite suffered by Edward Leicester Atkinson, MD, a parasitologist and surgeon with the British Royal Navy. Atkinson left the Cape Evans hut on the afternoon of July 4, 1911 (the middle of winter in the Southern Hemisphere), and was quickly overtaken by a snowstorm and became disoriented. Atkinson sought shelter under some rocks but could not replace his glove properly, which led to a serious frostbite of his hand.1 Atkinson stumbled on for some time, finding his way back to the hut hours later by the moonlight. Many of the men remarked in their diaries about the dreadful state of Atkinson's hand.2 Scott described the hand as having “immense blisters on every finger, giving them the appearance of sausages.”1(p244) Although frostbite had been documented by the early British naval expeditions to the Arctic, there would be little real knowledge of treatment until the First World War, when a distinction was made by the medical community between frostbite and trench foot.3 Petty Officer Edgar Evans dressing Edward Leicester Atkinson's frostbitten hand, Cape Evans, Antarctica, July 6, 1911. Photograph by Herbert G. Ponting for the British Antarctic Expedition. Source. Courtesy of the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. Frostbite is a constant threat in the polar environment and, if incurred, is quickly debilitating, causes great pain, is slow and complicated to heal, and can contribute to a cascade of related adverse health events. As Scott noted, the concomitant cognitive confusion and rapid frostbite that results from being caught without sufficient protective clothing and without assistance in a polar storm can rapidly deteriorate into a life-threatening, disabling circumstance. Contemporary workers in Antarctica prevent frostbite by dressing appropriately for the conditions, properly planning excursions, and using the “buddy system” when working outside.