The Red Cloud chief., 1879-03-13

On CATCHING COLD.-The increase
of catarrh remedies is alarming, if the
demand is indicated by the abundance
of the supply. The cold once caught
or more properly having caught us-we
willingly submit to every kind of reme-
dy, but if any n hints at precautions
against colds in a climate which within
a month has more than once varied 80
degrees in a dozen hours, he is accused
of "coddling'-is requested not to
I" fuss'-and soon finds there is nothing
against which the population of all
classes is more averse to take precau-
GOns. Some one has said there are only
two classes in the community who I'M
derstand any thing about catching cold
doctors and people who suffer from
face-ache and rheumatism. Very few of
us have the slightest conception that
when the thermometer stands at % de-
grees-a much higher temperature than
the average of the past January-the
warmth of every breath of air which
finds its way into our bodies has to be
raised 40 degrees. The effort of the vi
tai forces to perform this work is of it.
self exhausting. The changes hourly
taking place between one room and an
other, the rise and fall of the heat in
our stoves and furnaces, dependent on
the judgment of our Bridgets or Johns,
may invOlve-does involve-sudden
falls in the temperature to
which only a strong and perfect
vital apparatus can adjust itself
without difficulty. Chilliness kills from
Maine to Texas, in a twelve month, as
many victims as last years visitation of
yellow fever, and chilliness is what we
seldom understand. We sit patiently in
bad draughts- draughts under doors
at our backs-in church-and we ex-
pose ourselves to unnecessary draughts
for ventilation which, however, should
never blow upon ourselves. 1t may be
doubted whether our own total aban-
donment of the nightcaps and bed-cur-
tains of our forefathers in winter time is
altogether a sanitary improvement. The
air of q bed-chamber should be pure air
-purer than a furnaced house CON-
monty provides, but with precautions
for keeping the air pure, we think we
might safely trust ourselves with the
screens and night-caps of antiquity. An
other modern idea is not to sleep in
flannel. True, flannel may most ju-
diciously be changed at night, and thus
avoid the dreadful state of things we
are continually warned about under the
head of "Exhalations;" but does a
bear take off his warm coat when he
goes to sleep in a hollow tree, or a
fox undress himself in his burrow?
Another trouble is cold feet, and we
may get damp feet from shoes that do
not let in water. A child sits hours in
school with a chill creeping up him
from the soles of his feet arising from
wet shoe-leather. 1t would be proba-
bly, safer to run barefoot through the
and dry u vet feet on WARM
carpet when we get home, than to sit
hours with this dampness rising through
our soles. A mother of a family who
has successfully raised healthy children
told US that her plan while her boys
young, was to dress them warmly,
especially their feet and chests, and let
them take free exercise in any weather.
But she always exacted that they should
come home when damp and chilled.
She ordered them to run home through
any rain rather than to take refuge any
where after they had been rained upon,
and upon reaching home, if cold CT
she always superintended their
on warm stockings and
Try shoes. We can offer no
better suggestion. "Fresh air with
1ue care" is the p%recaution against
consumption. The late Charles Sum-
ner was . member of . consumptive
all of his brothers and sisters,
but one, were attacked by it As they
manhood and womanhood.
The disease began to develop itself in