CATCHING COLD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3652, 12 October 1912, Page 4

CATCHING COLD.

That commonest of all common phrases, “catching cold,” has long been pronounced by high medical authority to be misleading and untrue. Wo (says “Outlook,” New York) do not catch cold at all; if we catch anything, it is tho bacteria which causes tno illness generally described as a cold. There are several of these long-named creatures, and, in point of fact, few' of us arc ever without the stereptococcus or the pnolmocoecus, or even the dread Bacillus diphtheria®. Normally, a man may have millions of these infinitesimal creatures in his system without developing a cold or other disease, but tho illness will appear when predisposing factors stir the bacilli into activity. An extremely interesting paper has recently been written on this general subject by Dr. William Brady in tho “New York Medical Journal,” and its whole purport is that we can avoid tlieso predisposing factors. “No one ever caught cold,” says Dr. Brady, “through cold fresh air,” no one, it is asserted, ever catches cold in the Arctic regions. But “housed-up mollycoddles” are in danger, and the things to avoid are such as overheated rooms, unhygienic dress, poor ventilation and overeating. Mono often than not the medium of infection is dust. Draughts, if the bad conditions above named are avoided, are in uo wise dangerous; in fact, without a draught ventilation is practically impossible, and a “clean draught of cold, fresh air is an unmitigated blessing.” This dictum, which is undoubtedly the last word and the truest word from science as it is also plain common sense, may recall to some of our readers tho story of tho man at a lecture who rose from his place near the door and solemnly inquired if anyone were present who believed in Christian Science. When a devoted disciple of that faith arose, the man who bad made the inquiry calmly asked the Christian Science adherent to change places with him, as he himself was in a draught and in danger of catching cold, and the other man would be immune. No doubt mental predisposition may have something to do with setting the bacilli in action, but physical causes, such as those Dr. Brady named, are the main factors, and they are so easily avoided that we really have no excuse for “catching cold.”