The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-02-10
TAKING COLD.
A DOCTORS VIEWS UPON AN
IMPORTANT NATTER.

The Three Factors Of Taking Cold.
Disease Caused by Evaporation
and Perspiration. How
to Escape Cold.
'Taking Cold" would hardly be con-
sidered subject on which a man, how
ever learned and accomplished he might
be, could make himself interesting in an
hours talk. The idea was dissipated,
however, in lecture delivered recently
at Cincinnati py DR., J. T. Whitaker.
No affliction, he said, was so common
to mankind, and yet nothing so calami-
tous. A man might escape politics, mat
rimony, and nearly everything else, but
he couldn't escape taking cold. He
might not get religion, but he was sure to
get cold Some people were always
taking cold. Nearly every disease in
the catalogue had been attributed to tax
ing 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 doc
tor said he proposed to show that taking
cold did not cause all the diseases, and
sstaking cold" was a good deal of bug
bear. More harm was caused by scare
and by trying to keep from taking cold
than in the thing itself.
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 man take cold. The three fac
tors of taking cold are: 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 a hurricane, by tax
ng a cold bath. or by change in c:i-
mate. The old-time doctrine was that
the arrest of the secretion of the skin
caused cold. This was fallacious. A
man could take cold from having his hair
cut, from laying off collar, wearing
thinner 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 vessels. All know
that in hot room the blood circulates
freely and the face and body become
flushed. Going into extreme cold there
is an opposite effect, though the contrac-
ton is not immediate. Colds never
caused lasting disease unless the organs
left affected were already diseased.
A mother often saws that her daughter
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 poisoned air and hot air.
The Indians never had case Of consump-
ton.
It invaded localities of dense popula-
ton. People who work in shops and
factories and have not much outdoor
exercise have consumption. 1t is in
herited, and to certain extent can be
communicated from a germ. Sailors
who are wet half the time and exposed
in all kinds of weather have not one
case of consumption in seventy. In city
where large class of men were engaged
in unloading cargoes from ships and
standing in water half the time there
was not case of consumption in 200. 1t
was claimed that pneumonia was caused
by cold. This was equally wrong.
Pleurisy and rheumatism were neither
caused by cold. People would say that
bronchitis surely was caused by cold. By
no means. Rather by floating organisms
that take lodgment. He would not deny
that cold might be the exciting cause
and arouse disease that had been dor
mant. 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 pco-
pie breathe them. He would not say that
colds did not cause some diseases, for in
stance, muscular rheumatism, infantilc
paralysis, and certain order of Bright's
disease.
How to get rid of or escape a cold
would be question asked. If aman stood
on the street and allowed himself to get
chilled through he would take cold. If
he walked and kept the blood in circula-
ton he would not. Rubbing was good
preventive; the massage treatment" !"
for instance, being good thing. One
of the cures for cold is hot bath, but
if INDUCED in at the wrong time and in
the wrong way it is liable to aggravate
the cold person already has.
A moral to be gained from the doctors
most interesting address was that plenty
of good outdoor exercise was the best pos
,, sible thing for the health.