i am surprized Jackie has not commented, since i know she also likes the author Mary Stewart, and chilblain is a word often used in historical novels. it is the raw, red cracked, chapped skin one gets if you don't keep your hands warm and dry in cold weather..and a word i am pretty sure ms stewart has used.
dairy farmers, (and milkmaids) would get them, and so would fishermen and sailors.. and the poor.
like chapped lips, they are painful. and treated by a layer of grease (lanolin, or other such emoilients) to help the skin keep moist.
i have frequently seen chillblains is 'historical' but vaguely romantic novels, (Anya Seton comes to mind -- with the Winthrop Woman or Devil Water, or Katherine...)
allof ms Seton's books are 90 to 99% accurate in historical detail, but the emotional lives of the characters (all three named above are about women on the perifery of historical events) are made up.
The Winthrop Woman, is about Margaret (winthrop)Winthrop Feake Hallet, niece and daughter in law to John Winthrop, Governer General of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who also was mother in law to John Bowne, (who in 1650, was tried and acciquited in Holland on religious grounds, he won the right to the free practice of faith in NY (then New Amsterdam).
While Margaret didn't do any thing spectactular, she did manage to meet and know may influencial people.
Hallets cove is still found on NYC maps (just below the Triboro bridge).
chillblain
