Their sufferings were greatly increased by the filth, extreme cold, and their uncomfortable positions; their clothes had rotted.

When they were taken out their eyes were unable to endure the light and their stomachs at first rejected all food.
While returning from Cambridge, February 2, 1799, Elizabeth Woodcock dismounted from her horse, which ran away, leaving her in a violent snowstorm.

She was soon overwhelmed by an enormous drift six feet high.
The sensation of hunger ceased after the first day and that of thirst predominated, which she quenched by sucking snow.

She was discovered on the 10th of February, and although suffering from extensive gangrene of the toes, she recovered.

Hamilton says that at a barracks near Oppido, celebrated for its earthquakes, there were rescued two girls, one sixteen and the other eleven; the former had remained under the ruins without food for eleven days.