The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1878-03-29
Beware Cold.

There is no greater fallacy than the
opinion held by many, particularly the
young and strong and vigorous, that
winter, especially a sharp. frosty one,
with plenty of snow, is the most healthy
season of the year. Very few persons
seem to realize the fact that cold is the
condition of death, and that, in both
warm and cold climates, it is our un-
conscious effort to maintain our bodily
heat at temperature of SO degrees
that wears us out. TO this tempera-
ture, 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 a suf-
ficiently elevated bodily temperature
becomes very often a difficulty too
great for our strength, the advent of n
severe winter is really more 10 be
dreaded than the visitation of pcsti-
lence.
The saying, "IIeat is life, cold is
death has a striking illustration and
confirmation in the reports now regu-
larly submitted by DR.. Russell TO the
Glasgow Sanitary committee. The
death rate rises and falls with the regu-
larity of the thermometer. So many
degrees less heat, so many more deaths,
and vice versa. In n recent fOrtniohtlv
report DIR. Russell says, "Thc death
rate in the first week of the fortnight
was twcnty-one. and in the second
week twenty-five. The mean tempera-
ture in the former week was 5O.S de-
grces Fahrenheit, in the latter 80 -.
He attributes the low rate of the first
week to the high mean temperature of
the preceding fortnight, which was
IL. 3 degrees, and adds, ''This is good
illustration of Il law which we frequent
ly observe in these reports of tempcra-
lures and death rates-that week of
low temperature produces q rise in NOR
tality the week following"
In our climate it would probably be
difficult to find more frequent cause
of serious ailmcnt than taking cold
Whatever weak place we may have,
whatever constitutional disorder we are
subject to, cold will surely discover.
We take cold because our vitality is too
low TO ward off the effects of the re-
duccd temperature around us. AS a
matter of the first Importance, then, to
resist cold and the various derange-
mcnts of the system consequent, it is
necessary by proper nutrition to main
tain our natural animal heat; second,
to retain this heat by sufficient guam
tity of clothing; third, to regulate with
care the temperature of the air we
breathe. Contrary to the opinion cur
rent among lovers of cold weather, a
fire in bedroom in the winter 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 increased.
a cold is the beginning of everything
that is bad. If any one conscious of
having caught one feels cold chills
creeping up the back, let him apply a
mustard plaster to the bottom of the
spine and the lower part of the back at
once; and by so doing he may avert q
dangerous illness before il is too late
and medical advice can be procured. 1t
should never be forgotten that cheat is
life, cold is death. - Scientific Ameri-
can.