The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1875-02-04
Catching Cold.

A writer in a London paper Says in re
gard to catching cold: The teaching Of
u quarter OF a centnry has taught the mid
die classes some elementary truths about
hygenie and they have as u rule u vague
idea that bad drainage produces typhoid,
that wet feet are not good for consumptiye
people, that cleanliness in the home is
desirable that whitewashing is u good
disintectant, and that the SKIN is the health
ier for plenty of water, but they know
very little more. We should not say they
knew that much were it not that an alarm
Of cholera, or an outbreak of typhoid. or
y burst Of scarlet fever seems to bring out
in their minds sort of latent knowledge
which they always possessed but contrived
not to remember until the pressure became
too severe to be resisted. They do know
Il little, moreover, about bad smells, and
something Of the effect of drinking, and
little about heat apopleNy, but Of precau-
tion against cold they not only know moth
ING, but are extremely dislnclined to learn.
They dislike catching colds, Of course,
and grow depressed and stupid and i'll
tempered when they have caught them
but they look upon colds as mislortunes
which must come, and which do not sig
nifty. and if urged to take precautions re-
gard the adviser, even if Il professional
man, as slightly etfeminate or, as they
express it, very much given to coddling
himself 1t does not strike them that Il
cold wave kills as many people as a thirst
of cholera. Because strong children sur
vive daily bath in cold water they think
cold water 'hardens' children in winter us
we'll as summer; and because air and eX-
ercise are excellent things, they assume
that fog is air and long walk in a drizzle
beneficial. If they are getting on in years
they may admit that they like warmth and
good fires, but they are wholly unaware
that healthy warmth means not only a
warm mtemperature-say siXty-iour degrees
Fahrenheit-but temperature steadily
maintained at that height either by fires
or clothes. The very use of thermome-
ter to regulate the temperature OF Il room
seems to be unknown in most houses. and
you will see sedentary men sitting in a
room for hours with II fire which brings
the temperature up to 70 degrees. and
then for hours more with the fire nearly
out and the temperature at 81 degrees OF
lower They know, we suppose, that a
sudden fall of eighteen degrees will kill
off men Of low vitality in hundreds, will
give perhaps q third of mankind a touch
of the liver and will intlict on half the
remainder an influenza nearly rs annoy
ing and almost as dangerous as a fever
but once indoors they fail tie realize their
knowledge Even when the circulation is
weak and the old are aware that cold is
their enemy, they will 60 from heated
library to a chilly dining room, quite un-
| HOY i,rbt int n
cold bath, and, having done it. will scold
| their daughters for throwing Oft their wraps
while heated from a ball-no doubt a
dangerous practice, but not a bit more so
than the sudden changes in which the
scolders habitually indulge This con-
tempt ior the thermometer, the only trust
worthy guide in fire-making, is positively
perverse, and so is much of the popular
notion about 'hardening.' The basis OF
that notion as entertained by the middle
class-the working poor are wiser, be-
cause they are educated by the acute pain
of rheumatism-is that the worse the
weather, or at all events the colder the
weather, the more it hardens you-an as
sertion which, when true at all, is only
true of persons with eXuberant vitality
ard unusually high circulation. For the
average man or woman In this country
exposure to the weather during eight
months of the year may have bracing ol
otherwise beneficial effect, indeed, it mus
have on all but limited class. but during
the remaining four months the loss is a
great as the gain, and for the old, for chill
dren. and for persons of low vitality il
f probably greater. Agricultural laborer
are far from being a healthy or long-livet
class of the community nor do police
men, who are out in all weathers and wei
fed, enjoy any marked immunity from dis
| ease"