The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1872-01-18
Health Hints.

Bad colds aggravate every malady;
they are the sparks which kindIe the
tinder of physical infirmities into a
consuming flame. Few persons are
! perfectly well at any time; many are
susceptible to some form of ailment,
which needs only trif1ing Irregular
ity or incidental exposure to fix it i'll
the system, to become the pest and
plague of a lifetime. ''Died yester-
day." is the common announcement
OF the morning newspaper; then fol-
lows some familiar name and the
| thought came across us that il was
only yesterday" we saw him ON the
street, seemingly as we'll as he ever
was in his life.
''Died yesterday" the short, sad re-
cord of the daily paper ofthe city, and
the weekly of the village or country
town; no age, no sex, no condition of
life Is exempt; tomorrow it may be
said ofany ofus, parent or child, youth
or age, matrOn or maiden, "Died yes
terday," of 4 short illness. In inum-
cradle cases it is n bad cold which caus-
es this sad havoc of human life; not
that bad cold is necessarily fatal; for
there is not a single reader of mature
years, who has not had many a bad
cold, which worked off," and that was
the last oft.
a strong healthy man i'm the prime
lise, has vigOr of constitution which
repels cold, from ordinary causes; or
drives them out of the system when
they are taken; but he cannot do it
always; time comes, when, although
he may feel strong, and finally per
suades himself that he is as strong and
vigorous as ever he was in his life, yet
the conviction begins to creep in upon
him, when he gets to be about fifty
years old, that somehow or other he
takes cold more readily than he used
to; and it "hangs on" longer; he can
not get rid of it as easily; and with
this conviction comes by slow degrees
the instructive evidence of draught, of
open doors, of hOisted windows. He
shrugs his shoulders more decidedly
when he goes out into the frosty air:
he buttons his coat; he draws his col
lar around his ears; then comes the
wooden gloves; the comforter around
his neck.
All this means that life is waning,
that it must be cherished or it will 90
out in the night of the grave.
Not one halfthe human familyreaches
fifty years; the great majority die be-
fore that time, and of a vast multitude
of those who have thus prematurely
perished, it may be written in words
so familiar, "he took a little cold and
it settledD-On some one part of the
body, which was weaker than the
others more liable to disease in this
debilitated condition, and that was
the beginning of the end. If mans
throat is weak from having gone out
into the cold air too soon after sing
ing, or speaking in q warm room, the
cold "settles" there and his voice be-
come hOarse. He speaks with more
or less difficulty, often not above
whisper; there is a severe burning
sensation at the hollow of the bot
tom of the neck; getting more and
more for three days, and then goes
downward and attacks the lungs.
Ii cold settles on the outward COW
ering of the lungs it become pnuemo-
MIA, Inflammation of The lungs, or lung
fever, which in many cases carries
the strongest man to his grave in a
week. If a bad cold falls upon the
inner covering of the lungs, it is pleu-
risy, with its knife-like pains, and its
slow, very slow recoveries. If a cold
settles in the joints there is rheuma-
tism with its ''agOnies of pain" and |
rheumatism of the heart, which in an
instant snaps the cord of life with no
friendly warning, not waiting a sec
Ond. 1t is of the utmost practical inn
portance then, in this wintry season,
to know, not so much how to cure a |
cold, as how to avoid it; with such
knowledge, n man, with even mOder-
ase care, need not take cold during a
whole winter, for ne has to do but two
things: lst to be certain what gives
him cold; I'd, then learn to avoid it. |
Colds always come from one cause
some part or the whole body being
colder than natural for time longer
or shorter, according to the vigor of
the constitution. IL q man will keep
the feet warm always, and never al
low a feeling of chilliness to come
over him, he need not take cold in a
lifetime. Here then comes in q most
valuable suggestion: dress abundant
ly warm all the time. While multi
tudes of colds come through cold,
damp feet, perhaps the majority arise
from persons cooling off too quick,
after becoming a little warmer from
exercise than is natural.