The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-23
EASY TO AVOID TAKING COLD
SIMPLE PRECA UTIONSs THAT IT IS
 NO BOTHER TO OBSERVE

Cold Water and Cold Air Bathing
 Most Potent Offsets to the Overheated
 Houses Which are the Chief sourct
 of Colds in This Country, Doctors
 Say.
 "Everybody has cold" said New York physician last week. "I am kept busy dealing out prescriptions for ln- f1uenza and sore throat and coughs ana lame backs I hate to give the medl- cine. It upsets the patients stomach and I don't know but what cold Scylla is about as desirable as an ln- testinal Charybdis. As for the stuff people buy at the drug stores. the pa- tent medicines, most of them are enough to upset the digestion of an os- trich.
 "Prevention is the thing for colds. Of course it's the thing for all disease, but it Is more practicable in the case of colds than in most instances. It IS absurd for people to take cold as cas- lily as they do. Our steam-heated houses are responsible for large per- centage of the trouble. But one house or office out of thousand is kept at sensible temperature. Especially at this time of year when the first chill IS settling down, overheating plays the mischief We haven't had day or night that would really justify steam or furnace heat, yet the furnaces are going in almost all the apartment houses, office buildings and private houses. Hot water isn't quite as ob- noxious, but it is seldom regulated.
 Americans complain that it is too cold in such weather as that of the past few weeks to dispense with fires. That is sheer nonsense Look at the Europeans, They are absolutely com fortable in an indoor temperature in which we would be shivering, and they don't take cold every time they step out of doors, or feel whiff of fresh cold air. We could accustom ourselves to their ideas of house heating if we would do 1t, and we would be infinitely more healthy and comfortable.
 ''We are so sensitive to cold, thanks to artificial conditions, that we dress too warmly, pamper our bodies. In or der, as we think, to be comfortable out of doors, we pile on fannels and thick clothing and wear it indoors, where the rooms are so warm that gauge pa5amas would be the only appropriate wear. We get overloaded, perspire, make ourselves sensitive as hot house plants, and, when we do go out of doors, after smot herring ourselves in out door wraps, we suffer horribly from cold. Of course we do. If we would get used to a cold, bracing temperature in the house, the outdoor air would have no terror for us. There would be no chill, no goose flesh, no taking cold and we wouldn't need to be swathed like Egyptian mummies.
 "Then there is the bath. There are few persons who cannot stand the ehock of a cold plunge in the morning. They don't get the proper reaction, ana the plunge would harm them. This isn't true of the healthy, vigorous mor- tai but I will not insist upon cold plunge for any one. For the cold plunge bath I do plead most fervently. Any one not an invalid can get used to that. if he goes at 1t rationally, and will be benefited by 1t. Let him gradu- ally lessen the warmth of his water, use the cold sponge sparingly, swiftly, at first and apply 1t to small portion of his body at time, keeping the rest of the body covered. Gradually he will reach the point where he can be lavish of the cold water and splash joyously; and in most cases the cold sponge will lead to the cold plunge.
 'No one who has not accustomed