word of the day: chilblains

word of the day: chilblains

Miss Bianca is trying to convince the Mouse Prisoners’ Aid Society to attempt the rescue of a prisoner from the salt mines. Very little is known about the person to be rescued, and that raises some objections. Miss Bianca insists, however, that —

'The sole relevant fact [is] that a salt mine is no place for a child! — How or why Teddy-Age-Eight got there, where he comes from, why the Education Authorities haven’t found him, I frankly confess I haven’t the slightest idea. Nor do I even speculate! He may be the heir to a fortune, or a waif and a stray; the victim of mistaken identity, or loss of memory; he may possess a thousand virtues, or a thousand faults; none of that concerns us. The sole relevant fact is that salt mines are no place for children — because just to begin with, they’d get chilblains.’

Miss Bianca was always wonderfully skillful in introducing the common touch. Every member of the Ladies’ Guild was on her side at once; they had to dress chilblains all winter, whenever a sink-pipe burst and their families rushed out skating without gloves.

definition (Mayo Clinic): Chilblains (CHILL-blayns) are the painful inflammation of small blood vessels in your skin that occur in response to repeated exposure to cold but not freezing air. Also known as pernio, chilblains can cause itching, red patches, swelling and blistering on your hands and feet.

I don’t think I ever got chilblains. My hands are sensitive to the cold, but I haven’t lived in a place that gets very cold. OK, yes, I did live in Anchorage, Alaska for my first three years, and I may have gotten chilblains then, but I don’t remember it. There have been times my hands got itchy after being exposed to cold. But swelling? Or blisters? I can’t recall such. 

Chilblains is one of those words I recognize from reading, but until now never looked up. It does mean more or less what I thought it meant. 

source:

Miss Bianca in the Salt Mines

by Margery Sharp

with illustrations by Garth Williams

1966. Little, Brown and Co., New York