Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1881-11-16
How Colds Are Caught.

Let US suppose person 10 be sitting IN
a room the temperature of which Is, say.
20 degrees Fahrenheit, and that current
OF cold air is rushing IN al an Open uoor OF
window and playing upon the back of his
mead, or peshaps on his legs or feet, and
the probability is that he viii ''catch cold, .
and in nine cases out of ten this cold will
be catarrh in the head, and what may
appear more remarkable still. only one
nostril will at first be affected. Now, if
the catarrh was due to the inhalation of
cold air, both nostrils would suffer; but 1t
is not So for as each size OF the body is
supplied by Its distinct set of nerves, so
only that side ia affected through which
the reflex disturbance has been transmitted.
The mOdus Operdndi is the following:
The draught Of cold air acting, we will
suppose, on the back of the head, conveys
through the sympathetic nerve, which
ramifies on the scalp, a shock to the ner-
vous center from which these nerve fbres
proceed; but We must understand that this
nerve center sends its filaments to other
portions of the body, and so the shock
which thus center receives by one set OF
nerves is reflected by another set to some
surface quite remote from that primarily
acted upon, aud in this way temporary
paralysis of the nerves supplying the blood
vessels of the mucus membrane of the
nose Is brought about. In consequence
these vessels become diated and engorged,
and, the shock which has brought about
this congestion continuing, disturos the
equilibrium of the blood supply, and so an
infiammalory condition is set up. When
this exists the blood vessels are enormously
distended; consequently an excess of blood
passes through the part, the little cells
which secrete the mucous being thus ex-
cited and working much more rapidly than
when in health. In this way the enor-
nous discharge of mucus which accom-
panies cold In the head Is accounted for.
Another effect of this irritation Of the
mucous membrane is sneezlng, which is
an effort of nature to restore the equIlib-
rum of the nervous center by another
kind of reflex action. Sneezing in catarrh
is a method nature adopts to stimulate the
PROSTATE nervous center, and thus enable
it tn reassert its proper control over the
blood supply to the part; indeed 1t will be
found that the effects of being exposed to
q draught of cold air are often completely
destroyed by succession of sneezes. OF
course nature does not always Immediately
succeed IN these efforts, but when she does
not the shock from which the nervous
center suffers gradually passes away, and
the blood vessels again come under the
control of the little nerves which regulate
their callber, and so the catarrh disappears
in few hours, or at most in a few days.
1t sometimes happens that the shock from
the cold air acting upon the nervous center
is of such severity that the consequent IN
flamation Is intense enough to check the
secretion altogether. and in consequence
the mucous membrane is dry as well as
infamed, and the suffering very much in
tensIfied. So far, we have only glanced a;
a cold in the head, which passes away in
few hours; but this is not always the
happy termination. There is a peculiar
tendency which Inflammation possesses OF
not leaving of where it commenced, but
of invading the tissues in its immediate
nelghborhood, and more especially when
the tissue is continuous with that primarily
attacked, as is the case with the mucous
membrane of the air passages. A cold
may commence IN the head and rapidly
spread by what is technically termed con-
tinuIty of tissue iuto the chest; and so
what at the first promised TO be only cold
in the head may terminate in an attack of
bronchitis, or even Inflammation of the
lungs.