The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-04-14
PREVENTING COLDS.
ORDINARY PRECAUTIONS NOT A
SUFFICIENT PROTECTION.
The System Should be Hardened
Against Colds-How Colds Begin
and How they Should
be Treated.

U6 IFeaCcu.
Titus Munson Coan, NJ. D., says in
Harper's Weekly: Colds are always with
us, like the poor; and the two ills are
about equally difficult of. treatment.
The very name "cold" is misleading
There is nothing cold about cold; it is
on the contrary, an acute inflammation,
heat; and it runs its course like any
other fever. This must be kept in mind
if we would understand the best ways OF
preventing and of checking cold
II will not say of curing it; for cold,
once well established, is as incurable a.
any other self limited disease.
1t takes its misleading name from the
fact that exposure to cold produces it.
Cold feet, cool draught upon part OF
the body, or exposure of the whole body
to low temperature, will bring On its
symptoms either in the bronchial tubes,
(''cold oh the ch,st"), the vocal organs
('scold in the throat"), or the nasal pas
sages ("cold in the head'). When the
flame of Inflammation is lighted ia either
of these sensitive regions it is apt to ex.
tend itself to the others. But wherever
it is, the disease is Inflammation, and
nothing else, and must be treated as such;
that is to say, be palliative rene lies and
by avoiding further exposure until it has
run its course.
But cold once established, is seldom
cured ends when it has spent itself.
So that the more important question for
US is, how may we keep from catching
colds2 How can we diminish the great
tax that they lay on our comfort, the risk
which they cause of pneumonia or bron-
chitis, and their frequent termination in
chronic catarrh, the characte: istic Amer.
lean ailmeut, and the most distressing of
those that come from our variable eli.
mate2
Of the ordinary precautions against
catching cold I need say little. To dresi
with sufficient warmth in winter, to
avoid suddenly checking the perspirat!on
in summer, to gaurd against cold feet the
year around, and against accidental un.
covering during sleep, to avoid draughts
and to Keep warm in the cold-all these
precautions we know and practice more
or less carefully, and yet many persons,
in spite of them all, are among the great.
est sufferers from colds.
Who are these unfortunate personsi
They are of all temperaments, habits and
ages. No age, no country, has not heard
their sneezing; and the chorus will never
cease until the sufferers learn this lesson,
which should be embroidered upon every
pocket handkerchief in Christendom: ''It
is not enough to protect yourself against
the cold. You must also harden your
self against the cold"
The people, then, who catch cold are
those who depend too much upon pre-
cautions and too little upon hardening,
and the more they protect themselves
without hardening, the tenderer they
become and the ikelier to catch cold.
It is like banking up river; the higher
you build the levees, the worse will be
the overflow when it comes. Those
people who defend themselves only by
arti6ce against colds are the worst suf-
ferers from colds.
How does the trouble begin? Very
often, perhaps usually, in childhood. An
anxious mother wishes to be sure that
her child shall not take cold; ''and if !
only keep him warm enough" she says
to herself, arguing from the name of the
thing-"if l can only keep him warm
enough, surely he will never catch cold. "
So the child is burdened night and day,
summer and winter alike, with wraps
and coverings that keep him in pcrspira-
tion a great part of the time, and this
causes such tenderness Of the skin that
catching cold on the least exposure is in
evitable. It is quite tru; that child
should be kept warm. But the anxious
mother must bear in mind that in warm
room or on hot day he does not need
as much clothing as when 1t is cold.
Overheating, in a word, is the surest
preparation for colds; but with each new
attack the ignorant mother can think OF
nothing better than to make the house
warmer and the clothing thicker. Of
course the little sufferers skin becomes
still tenderer, and the colds more fire.
quent. Many an active little fellow, thus
coddled, has to spend the bright days of
winter in watching from his bedroom
windows the sports of happier children
who are not so tender but that they can
face the snow without danger.
Now what is to be done in such case2
The treatment needed is simple enough,
though it needs intelligent care in the ap-
plication. These are my five rules for
hardening.
/. Cold plunge baths for the compara-
lively few who can bear them.
2. Cod sponge baths daily for the
majority of healthy persons.
/ 8. AS much outdoor exposure,
summer and winter, as possible, always
with clothing according to the season:
4. Avoid sleeping too warm at night; i;
the golden mean in the matter IS the
best.
S. Many Persons take cold by having
cold feet, and for these the cold douche
to the feet is a most effective cure. 1t
stimulates the nerves and the arteries OF
the feet, and produces brisk reaction
of warmth. A single application Will
sometimes set cold feet glowing that
have not been warm for wAole winter.
In practice I have found this a most ef-
fectiye remedy, and while it is not to be
used absolutely without precautions OF
times and seasons, yet there are few per-