Connecticut western news., 1878-04-04
Heat Is Life-COld is Death.''

The Scte'at!fc American says: There
 is no greater fallacy than the opinion held by many, particularly by the young and strong and vigorous, that winter
 especially a sharp, frosty one. with plenty of snow-is the most healthy sea- son of the year. Very few persons seem to realize the fact that cold is the condi- tion of death, and that in both warm and cold climates it is our unconscious effort to maintain our bodily heat at 8 tenn perature of ninety-eight degrees that wears us out. To this temperature, called blood heat" every cubic inch of oxygen that serves to vitalize our blood must be raised by our own bodily heat or life ceases. Since in cold weather the maintenance of sufficiently elevated bodily temperature becomes very often a difficulty too great for our strength, the advent of 8 severe winter is really more to be dreaded than the visitation of a pestilence.
 The saying, "Heat is life-cold is death, has 8 striking illustration and confirmation in the reports now regularly submitted by Dr. Russell to the Glasgow Sanitary Committee. The death rate rises and falls with the regularity of the thermometer. So many degrees less heat, so many more deaths, and vice versa. In a recent fortnightly report Dr. Russell says: "The death rate in the first week of the fortnight was twenty-one, and in the second week twenty-five. The mean temperature in the former week was 4O.S degrees Fah., in the latter 39. degrees" He attributes the low rate of the first week to the high mean temperature of the preceding fort night, which was 47.03 degrees, and adds: "This is good illustration of a law which we frequently observe in these reports of temperature and death rates that week of low temperature pro- daces rise in mortality the week fol- lowing"
 In our climate it would probably be difficult to find more frequent cause of serious ailments than taking cold. Whatever weak place we have, whatever constitutional disorder we be subject to, cold will surely discover. We take cold because our vitality is too low to ward of the effects of the reduced tempera- ture around us. As matter of first i'm portance, then, to resist cold and the various Arrangements of the system con- sequent, it is necessary by proper nutri- tlon to maintain our natural animal heat; second, to retain this heat by sufficient quantity of clothing; third, to regulate with care the temperature of the air we breathe. Contrary to the opinion current among lovers of cold weather, 2 fire in a bedroom in the win ter IS cheaper and better than doctors bill for, owing to our inactive condition during sleep, the circulation of the vital izing blood is both slow and imperfect, and hence the danger of taking cold by breathing cold air IS greatly in- creased.
 A cold is the beginning of everything that is bad. If any one conscious of having caught one feels cold chills creep ing up the back, let him apply a mus tard plaster to the bottom of the spine and lower part of the back at once and by 50 doing he may avert a dangerous illness before it is too late and medical advice can be procured. Itshould never be forgotten that "Heat is life-cold is death."