Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1908-02-20
COLDS, A TALK ON
HON 70 TREAT Them
Being the Opinions of Noted
Medical Man.


our care, we catch cold just the same. After
we ges furious cold we look back and often
can't discover where we got it. We "sat
in draft somewhere, 1--WE say. The trouble
is people don't know how to avoid colds,
nor do they know how to get clear Of them.
1t Is very important subject and one
upon which every man and woman should
seek all the light possible. I have just read
a very complete article in a popular period
ical, written by one of the most experienced
as well as the most sensible physicians in
the country, says the Washington Star.
He discourages all she old time-honored
supeTstitions about the origin Of colds and
lays it all to the prevalence Of germs, which
is not merely his opinion, but is, indeed, an
admitted fact And she cure which be rec
ommends is not the old fashioned herb or
cough mixture but merely the copious in
iectlon Of pure air into the lungs.
What he says are truths that any physi-
clan Of today will endorse. He says pneu-
monia is not the outcome of a cold but
comes from body resistance, overwork,
undertaking, or over indulgence IN alco-
hoI. There is absolutely no pneumonia or
consumption in the Attic regions, be states,
and this fact has been so apparent that a
floating sanatorium to visit the Artic re-
gions with cargo Of consumptive invaiids i
proposed.
Expeditions have gone to the polar re-
gions and remained their subjected to the
severe cold, priYations and hunger for three
years at time and never one OF them
suffered cold or symptom Of pneumonia.
Those same men have returned to the
warmer climate and within week after
their return have contracted furious colds in
a modern New York hotel. Is is in hot,
stuffy rooms, or by coming in contact with
other cold sufferers, that colds are contrac-
ted. There is no disease that is more con-
tagious than cold.
Colds are not caught where infectious
material is absent. Men often get drenohed
to the skin in cold weather and sleep in wet
clothes with o draft blowing across their
chests and necks, yet they don's catch cold.
We often get our feet wet without serious
after effects In the absence of germs a
cold is practical impossibility so says this
doctor.
We catch colds by crowding into warm
rooms, thereby providing ready-m
hot house for the transaction Of bacilli
When you begin to shiyer and sneeze and
run at the eyes you are not catching
cold;'' you have it already. II is merely
breaking ont and may have been contrac-
ted hours or days before.
A typical cold, or influenza, or grip, is
now admitted to be pure infection, due to
definite germ, aud the latter is one Of
the most highly contagious diseases knswn-
Grip goes through the country like cholera
or some plague. Is is communicated by
persons or may be transmitted through the
un1S III 1CtcCto Va HCHcpNP PCiSe h1pO
germs go through schools, churches and
factories Isolation is probably the only
means Of stamping out the epidemic.
One prominent doctor, the writer says,
describes chronic coldcatehers as people
who wear flannel next to their skins; pee
pie who "know they are in draft be-
cause il makes them sneeze; who, in short,
live unwholesome lives. To offset the ba-
cilli that produces colds we should keep
ourselves vigorous, clean and live and be
in well-ventilatsd apartments.
To lessen the danger Of catching coldswe
should get the out-of-door habit. Il takes
time to acquire this, but once acquired NE
wouldn't exchange it for anything else on
earth. We should learn to sit or sleep in
gentle current Of air. That drafts are
dangerous is pure superstition. a draft is
friend instead Of an enemy.
The pure air treatment which has been
prescribed for consumptiYes Of late years
has done what dopes, syrups and cough
mixtures have for centuries failed to dot
has affected radical cures. Patients who
are in consumptiye sanatoriums today don't
catch cold from the harsh treatment OF open
windows and drafts. The only case noticed
where they have caught cold is where colds
haye been imported. At the White Haven
sanatorium a sign appear at the entrance
which reads: No person suffering from
colds allowed to enter. =
In an Oregon camp a case is cited where
She patients never had q cold until one day
the cook 3 son came there from the village
school snufing and sneezing from cold
Shortly after this, aeyen Of the thirtesn pat
ents had cold.