The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-02-18
COLDS: HOW CAUGHT
AND HOW REMEDIED
1T is BELIEVED THAT THEY
ARE CONTAGIOUS.
Are Not Caused Merely by Exposure,
for There Are Places Where They
Cannot Be Caught---Some Highly
Interesting Cases in Point.

From the London Spectator
Many people may be surpHed to
hear that even i'm this world there an"
places where it is impossible 10 catch
a cold. simply because there are no
colds to catch. There are facts. how
ever, 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 c"ld'
Yet they were exposed to cold, iatlSue
and wet TO a degree which W" at home
can hardly realize. EspeciallN ono re-
members how Nanscn and his comrade
Johansen, duiug their wonderful eX-
peditiOn on foot over the polar ice, Went
on, day after day, clad in clothes which
We're so saturated with perspiluiOn
that they frcze by day into one solid
mass of ice and even cut into the flesh;
how every night, when they tucked
themselves uD in their sleeping bags,
the first hour was spent i'm thaWing;
how they lay shivering, their frozen
socks spread across their chests. until
their clothes gradually became wct and
soft and eventually comfortable AMI
warm. It was indeed "a damp bed to
slecep i'm. Yet they never caught a
cold; and, mark this for it is very i'm
portant, with the exception Of Nan
sens brief attack of lumbagu, their
health did not suffer in amy way from
the exposure. II may be said that they
were all strong men. marVelOuslY har~
dy; they WeIe able To Withstand the
cold. But what was the fact? Direct
~ they reached civilization they all
caught cold. Nanspn'S own statement
to the writer was: There is of course.
no doubt that cold is an infectious dis
ease. We he'd none during our Journey,
and we all got it ,very badly. tuu) az
the very moment We reached Norway" "
And this seems to he the universal
experience of arctic explorers. The
members of tn" Jackson Harms won tn
expedition, who stayed for three year.
in Franz Josef Land, neN,E once suf-
fered from colds. Yet they. too un-
derwent at times great exposure The
arctic summer was exceedingly damn
cold, mist-ladcn east winds preRlir-
ing. Wet feet We're the rule, ~ chron,
ic experience "On one occp sion sis
of us were exposed to a gale in boat
for three days and nights. when we
were all drenched to the skin with rain
land being unable on account of the
inclement weather and want ui drift
or other wood to light fire. we had to
remain in our wet clothes and practic.
ally let them dry upon our bodies, yet
none of Us took cold" It is notpwor-
thy that the only i'll effects ever felt
were slight tWinGes OF rheumatism, eN-
peIienced by two or three only, and
quite of tieeting nature. Indeed
their doctor declares that none of these
men were the worse for their long su-
1ourn in those northern regions, while
some at least were the better rur it,
Yet they also, with only two eXcep-
tions, suffered from severe colds di-
rectly they reached civilization.
FELT NO LII EFFECTS.
Very interesting, too. is Sir Martin
COnwaN's account of his experiences
For two months. when exploring Spit2
bergen, he and his four comrades wer
exposed to considerable privations. wer
almost constantly wet through. an,
frequently had to sleep in their we
clothes; yet their health never suffere
in any way from this But at the en-
of that time they went down to An
W
some forty men We're living, and where
moreover, there was almost COnstan
intercourse with the mainland. With
in two davs of their arrival COnWa
and his companions all developed VIC
lent colds. Still more striking were hi
experiences in the Himalayas. Will
among the mountains he and his mer
Notwithstanding great exposure. neve
caught a cold. They even visited ma
tive villages without doing SO. Bu
once they came down to a village Wher
there was a small European settlemen
having communication with the outsid
world-one white man had come u
three days previously. There Conwa
and his men all, without exception
took bad colds. which developed h
thinks, in about couple of days. Th
present writer has heard, too, but ha
been unable to verify the fact, that tn
men at the observatory on top of BE
Nevis, often living i'm the midst O
cloud and rain and snow, never suffe
from colds: but that whenever they de
scend to inhabited regions they inyar
ably catch severe ones.
&c ala Al