Martinsburg weekly independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1873-1875, 1874-06-13
NO. IL.
Taking cold.

i aiming to the preservation oil
he, 9TH, no one is fraught with
moro mischief than that about
tasing cold. According 10 the
popular. aid | may also say to
some extent professional, view,
| taking cold is fh>a greatest disease
and death-producesr In the world.
Fully eight per cent. OF those who
consult physicians prem. sse BY say
| ing they have taken c0lsJ. IL a
relapse occurs during GONZALES
cence, ten to one the blame ii laid
on the action of cold. My pain
| Is greater, must have taken cold;
my cough il worse, must have
taken cold; do not feel as well
this morning, / think / have TAX
EN- cold, but / don't see how are
expressions which the physician
hears a dozen times day. The
latter is thereby often led To the
reflection that fit were not for
death-dealing colds he would have
little to do, and convalescence
would seldom be interrl pied. But
Ii the physician takes lie trouble
to think q little more upon the
subject, he will be convinced that
to his own craft Ii due this stercO-
typed and never-ending complaint
OF his patients about taking cold.
The sick and their friends nearly
always take their cue about dis
ease and its causes from the trust
ed family doctor; and he accounts
very often indeed for an aggrava-
ton Of the SYMPTOMS of those u NJ
der his charge the cause of which
aggravation, by the way, may be,
and often Is, very difficult to de-
tecu by the easy and satisfying OK
PLANTATION Of having taken cold. In
this way he gets over the trouble
Of attempting to make plain TO I'm
tutored minds what Is often a puz-
zling problem to the most train
ed intellect, and at the same time
shifts the responsibility for the re-
lapse on the accomplishing and
much abused weather. So il Is
that men and women have been
led to regard climatic changes as
the greatest enemy to their health;
lift were not for them, their health
would be next to perfect from, the
beginning to end OF the year.
Thousands OF consumptives. spe-
cially in the first and second stages
of the disease, are firmly Of the
opinion that If they could only os
cape the malign Influence Of one
cold after another, their recovery
would be assured. To this end
precautions of the most thorough
character are scrupulously 0bserv-
ed. and yet cold after cold is taxi
en-; the patient, mother, a nurse
knows not how.
When the human body Is at its
prime--with youth, vigor, purity
and good constitution on its side
no degree Of ordinary exposure to
cold gives rise to any unpleasant
effects. All the ordinary prccau-
lions against colds, coughs, and
rheumatic pains may be disregard
ed and no Ill effects ensue. But
let the blood become impure, let
the body become deranged from
any acquired disorder, or the dis
ease which will ensue, will be de-
termined by the kind of pre-exist-
ing blood impurity or the pre-exist
ing fault of the organic processes.
If the pre-existing fault be in a
deficient excretion of Tactic and
uric acids by the kidneys and
skin, the disease developed by
the cold will be rheumatic; If the
lungs be at fault, either by acquir-
ed or inherited abuses, infiama-
ton will be likely to ensue; or If
their be conjoined with the pull
monary fault an impure condition
OF the blood from the long -contin-
ued rebreathing of breathed air
consumption will not unlikely
show itself. In no other way can
the influence of cold in the devel
opment of diverse disease be &C
counted for; developing this dis
ease in one, and that disease In
another; this disease at one time
in person, and another disease
at another time; while at other
times and seasons, great and pro
longed exposure to cold is harm