Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-07-07
Cold, a Dangerous Element.
Cali aoplied externally acts in diff

Coil applied externally acts in differ.
ent way, any of which may cause
death. In addition to lowering temper
ature and driving the blood inward
Iy, it tends to suppress the cutaneous
fanction and also acts upon the internal
organs by sympathy. by the latter it
works upon the sympathetic and cere-
bro-spinal nervous systems and through
them by reflex action upon the involun-
tary muscles and secreting organs. In
this way exposure to cold and wet may
produce Inflammation of the bowels,
diarrhua, or dysentery. Hence, it was
a wise provision which led Charleston
regiment in the late war to wear broad
flannel belts upon the abdomen. The
result was that the soldiers thus pro-
tected suffered far less from bowel af-
fections than did their more exposed
comrades. AS mental and moral i'm
pressions may disturb digestion and
modify the hearts action, or terror
cause the pupil of the eye to dlate, so
through this same reflex system ex-
trinSic cold may produce internal dis
ease. In fact, cold employed externally
or internally acts upon the system in a
similar manner. A slap upon the ablo
men of frog will often stop the beat
ing of the animals heart. by the same
reflex action, drinking largely OF cold
water occasionally produces sudden
death, and cold bath, when the b)ds
was heated, has more than once resulted
fatally.
Such facts as the above are sufficient
to show that cold is a dangerous agent.
In the natural world it is useful in
destroying the germs of disease in Win
ter, and the bath in fevers is serviceable
for the reduction of temperature; but
cold applications when the body is cool
ing from heating should be avoided
The aged, infirm, fatigued, and users of
ardent spirits need to be cautious about
the external and internal use of cold. In
them the powers of vitality are low and
they may easily fall victims to slight
imprudence.
Facts observed at water cures are of
value in showing the effects of cold.
There, many persons are benefited and
some are harmed. The same mode of
treatment has good effect upon one
patient and bad upon another. The
reason of this is that many persons are
so debilitated as to have no reaction to
cold. For them cold bath, douche or
shower is hurtful. Such treatment may
at any time cause cessation of the hearts
action and death. Drs. Dickinson and
Bence Jones actually pushed the appli-
cation of cold water to the skin far
enough to arrest the hearts action; a
fact which shows that for the infirm cold
baths and showers are fraught with
danger, and that persons without q
sufficient reaction by taking these incur
an unwarrantable risk.
Of colds proper the symptoms are 80
yell known as to render description
unnecessary. When limited to Slight
coryza they are indeed trivial matter.
But even then they are liable to beget q
chronic catarrh and seriously affect or
even destroy the organs of sight and
hearing. In all such cases there is
proneness or disposition of the intlam-
nation to extend through the posterior
mares to the throat and bronchial tubes.
1t may thus result in quinsy, bronchitis,
pneumonia, or possibly excite latent
tendency to consum pti0n into fatal ac-
tivity. There is also good reason for
believing that such affections as pleuri-
sy, rheumatism, Inflammation of the
joints, erysipelas, and diseases of the
spinal cord often originate from cold.
The severity of some Of these affections
and the frequent deaths resulting from
them are sufficient to show that the
agent which predispoSes toward or ex-
cites them is by no means insignificant
affair.
The modes of taking cold are many.
Wet feet, or wet cloIhipg, Insufficient
clothing or cod drauyhts of air when
the body is cooling, damp beds, passing
from ovcr-heated rooms to cold ones,
sleeping iii damp apartments, and
exposure by being in L closed room or
carriage with the windows open, are
among the exciting causes. Getting wet
does not give rise - u cold if the clothes
be Immediately exchany yed for dry ones.
Nor is person in = perSpiration
peculiarly liable to take cold. Rather,
it is only when cooling from that heated
and perSpiring condition that the liability
exists. Perspira.ion followed by chilling
il quito likely to re .rlt in cold. Not the
heated but the cooling stage is the one
of danger. Then the reaction of the
system is less and the susceptibility to
cold greatly increased.
From the preceding facts it must be
evident that cold is source of great
danger. Especially is this true of colds
on the chest. Winter cough, instead of
being matter to be regarded with
Indifference, is often the precursor of a
serious disease. The consequences of q
cold range all the way from a slight
neuralgia or Insignificant coryza to an
affection Of the spinal cord or fatal
pneumonia. An epidemic of cholera,
diphtheria or smallpox often sweeps
over the country and arouses public
attention. Sanitary measures are
invoked to stay the plague, yet it il
probable that more de Aths, in any given
decade, result directly or indirectly from
colds neglected than from any of these
dreaded diseases. The only difference
Is tn 1t with the one We are familiar and
when death occurs take it as a thing
to be expected; with the other it is
unlocked for and startling. 1t is only
another exempilication of the old saving
that Familiarity breeds contem ot - but
this does not invalidate the fact that the
direct AMI indirect effects OF cold are
probably attended with greater fatali-
ty.-SciPqce altt HSl'th.
A queer suit has bean decided in
New York. a by of twelve picked up