The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1886-02-20
TAKING COLD.
A DocToR's VIEWS UPON AN IMPORTANT
MATTER.


talking Cold. would hardly be
considered subject on which a man
however learned and accomplished he
might be, could make himself inter
esting in an hours talk. The idea
was dissipated, however, in a lecture
delivered recently at Cincinnati, by Dr.
j. 7. Whitaker.
NJ afiiction, he caid, was so COM
mon to mankind, and yet nothing so
calamitous. A man might escape pol
itics, matrimony, and nearly every
thing else, but he couldn't escape
taking cold He might not get relig-
ion, but he was sure to get a cold.
Some people were always taking cold.
Nearly every disease in the catalogue
had been attributed to taking cold.
The ancient practice among physicians
was to define the nature of disease
and what its future would be. The
modern doctors went further and in
vestigated the cause of disease. The
doctor said he proposed to show that
taking cold did not cause all the dis
eases, and 'tal1ing cold" was good
deal of bug-bear. More harm was
caused by scare and by trying to keep
from taking cold than in the thing it.
self.
In the colder countries people did
not take cold at all. What he meant
by this was that the fact Of feeling
cold did not make a man take cold.
The three factors of taking cold are 4;
Airy motion, moisture, and reduction
of temperature, but neither of these
three factors alone would cause it. A
man would not take cold from being
in hurricane, by taking a cold bath,
or by change of climate. The old
time doctrine was that the arrest of
the secretion of the skin caused a cold.
This was fallacious. A man could
take cold from having his hair cut,
from laying off a collar, wearing thin
ner stockings, or anything of that
kind
Cold, he maintained, was caused by
evaporation and perspiration. There
was another theory that had been
handsomely demonstrated That is,
that it was caused by the blood YES
sells. All know that in a hot room
the blood circulates freely and the
face and body become flushed. Go
ing into extreme cold there is an OPP
posite effect, though the contraction is
not immediate. Colds never caused
lasting disease unless the organs left
effected were already diseased.
A mother often says that her daugh-
ter contracted disease from coming
out of a theatre, getting her feet wet,
coming from ball, or something of
that kind. This was entirely false.
Consumption is not caused by wet air,
cold air, etc. 1t was caused by poi
soned air and hot air. The Indians
never had case of consumption.
1t invaded locahtivs of dense popu-
lation. People who work in shops
and factories and have not much out
door exercise have consumption. 1t is
inherited, and to a certain extent can
be communicated from germ. Sailors
who are wet half the time and exposed
in all kinds of weather have not one
case of consumptive in seventy. In a
city where large class of men We're
engaged in unloading cargoes from
ships and standing in water half the
time there was not a case of consump-
ton in 700 It was claimed that
pneumonia was caused by cold. This
was equally wrong.
Pleurisy and rheumatism We're
neither caused by cold. People would
say that bronchitis surely was caused
by cold. By no means. Rather by
floating organisms that take lodge
ment. He would not deny that cold
might be the exciting cause AMI arouse
a disease that had been dormant. The
best and healthiest place is out of
doors. Here wind swept away the
germs of disease in the air These
germs are,housed within four walls,
where people breathe them. He