The aegis & intelligencer., 1899-04-07
FACTS ABOUT COLDS.
THERE ARE PLACES WHERE THIS
SICKNESS is IMPOSSIBLE.

Some Curious Experiences Which
Tend to Prove Tint Catching Cold"
LIS One of the 'Blessings" That Go
With Civilization.
Many people may nc surprised to hear
that oven in this world there are places
where it is impossible to catch n cold, SIM
ply because there are no colds to catch.
There are facts, however, which seem to
prove this. For example, Nansen and his
men during the three years which they
spent in the arctic regions never caught a
cold. Yet they were exposed to cold, IA
tigue and wet to IL degree which we at
home can hardly realize. Especially one
remembers how Nansen and his comrade
Johansen during their wonderful expcdi-
ton on foot over the polar ice went on,
day after day, clad in clothes which We're
81 saturated with perspiration that they
froZe by day into one solid mass of ice,
and even cut into their flesh; how every
night, when they tucked themselves up in
their sleeping bags the first hour was
spent in thawins; how they lay shivering,
their frozen socks spread across their
chests until the clothes gradually became
wet and soft, and eventually comfortable
sleep in. Yet they never caught a cold,
and, mark this, for it is very important,
with the exception of Nansen's brief at
tack of lumbago, their health did not suf-
fer in any way from the exposure. The
members of the Jackson-IIarmsworth ex-
pedition, who Staid for three years in
Franz Josef Land, never once suffered
from colds. Yet they also, with only two
exceptions. suffered from severe colds di
rectly they reached civilization.
Very interesting, too, is Sir Martin
Conway's account of his experiences. For
two months, when exploring Spitzbergen,
he and his four comrades were exposed to
considerable privations, were almost con-
stantly wet through and frequently had to
sleep in their wet clothes, yet their health
never suffered in any way from this. But
at the end of that time they went down to
Andres settlement on the coast, where
some 40 men were living and where, more
over, there was almost constant inter
course with the mainland. Within two
ir' of their arrival Conway and his COM
l;lnluns all developed violent colds. Still
more striking were his experiences in the
Himalayas
While among the mountains he and his
men, Notwithstanding great exposure,
never caught IL cold. They even visited
native villages without doing SO. But
once they came down to village where
there was q small European settlement
having communication with the outside
world-one white man had come up three
days previously There Conway and his
men all, without exception took bad colds,
which developed, he thinks, i'll about n
couple of days. The present writer has
heard, too, but has been unable to verify
the fact that the men at the observatory
on the top of Ben Nevis, often living in
the midst of cloud and rain and snow,
never suffer from colds, but that when
ever they descend to inhabited regions
they invariably catch severe ones.
Then there is the classical instance of
the ST. Kilda cold On that rocky, lonely
island, lying some 40 miles beyond the
western Hebrides, there are nigh upon
100 inhabitants, who keep few sheep and
cows cultivate some 40 acres and collect
the eggs, feathers and young of the numer-
Gus sea fowl. Their coast is so prccipitOuS
and their seas are so stormy that for
months out OF the 12 they are practically
inaccessible. Formerly they We're visited
only once n year by u ship from the main
land. Now several call there during the
summer, including excursion steamers
from Liverpool and Glasgow. The curious
point is that whenever ship reaches the
island all the inhabitants, including the
very infants srt the breast, are seized with
u cold. This fuct has been known for
nearly 200 years and greatly interested
DR. johnson when he and Boswell were
making their famous tour of the Hebrides.
The problem of this St. Kilda cold long
have suspected the simple explanation of
the mystery. One solution suggested was
that the steward always brought whisky
with him, and that it was the intcmpcr-
ance and jollity which took place on the
occasion which caused the epidemic. An
other explanation was that ship could
only reach tho island from the mainland
when the wind was from the northeast.
THE wind, not the strangers, caused the
cold This cold is still characteristic of
the island, and is called by the inhabitants
the strangers cold" On the arrival of
the first steamer every summer all the is
land folk fall victims; aftcrward many of
them escape. The attack lasts eight or ten
days, and is often accompanied by bron-
chial catarrh The inhabitants affirm that
if the ship comes from Liverpool or Glas-
gov the cold they catch is more severe
than if it comes from the Hebrides.
All these instances-and there are many
such-go to show that II cold is an infec-
tious disease prevalent widely. no doubt
but only where man, perhaps only where
civilized man, exists; also that III some
favored spots as in st. kilda, the disease
when it has been introduced, rapidly be-
comes extinct. This is known to be the
case on sailing vessels during II long voy
age and it is one of the reasons why such
Il voyage is often beneficial to patients suf-
fcring from consumption, who are SO sad
ly liable, after any catarrhal attack, to lose
the ground they have been slowly gaining
1t would seem. too, that the infection is
generally carried by human agency, and
it is noteworthy that some, ut least, of ev-
cry ships crew or passengers must take it
with them when they go abroad, for ap
parcntly every ship which reaches st
kilda brings the cold. Probably those who
carry it are often quite unconscious that
they have anything wrong with them, the
disease being. us it were, latcnt.-Ex
change.