University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1912-12-11
WHY PEOPLE CATCH COLD
Do You Sleep with Windows Closed? Wear
Sufficient Clothing? Hear the Advice of
an Athletic Trainer and Physicians.

A One-Act Operetta, with Sneezing
Chorus.
Scene: Anywhere in the temperate
zone, and in some other zones, too.
Time: Anytime from November to
May.
Characters: Most of us. Also some
small microbes, generally overlooked
but always on the job.
Plot: The conquest of humanity by
several tribes of microscopic bad
cold bugs.
(The bugs have already delivered
several knockout blows in the scrap)
Aschew! This from one speck of
humanity. Seventeen million germs
more or less-are turned loose in
the air, hunting for more Indifferent
humanity.
Aschew!! Thirty-four million now
more or less-germs are out look
ing for a place to locate. There may
/ be several different races represented,
but they all give a bad cold anyway.
An innocent human being comes
along where these bugs are playing
crosstag in the air. Watch 'em, there
, they go,-he breathes them into his
nose. He sleeps with his windows
closed at night and does not air out
his room in the day time. His blood
circulation is poor. His blood is con-
gested in the mucous membrane of his
nose. The germs find place waiting
for them and they camp there.
| It's cOming,-look out, - aschew!!!
| (Repeat the .chorus.)
! Here comes another human being.
He is wise. He gets plenty of fresh
air, eats regularly, takes exercise.
wears sufficient clothing, keeps his
blood circulation in first-class shape.
There go bunch of germs; he
| breathes them in. They don't receive
a welcome. They get into the blood.
The white corpuscles organize a lit
tie posse, surround the intruders. and
hustle them out. There is no place
for bad cold bugs in the healthy man
! or woman.
o. F. Field, instructor in physical
training, estimates that so per cent of
the students of the University sleep
with their windows closed at night.
1t is to this fact that many bad colds
may be attributed In the morning
the student goes away. windows still
closed. The maid cleans the room,
windows still closed. Then the stu
dent comes back and tries to study in
the room full of impure air, and later
sleeps in it. The result is that the
blood is not purified by the lungs as
it should be and the student is in just
the condition 10 give the germ that
causes a cold hearty welcome.
Avoid q Draft.
Sleeping with windows open does
not mean sleeping in a draft. That
has evil effects, too, for one side of
the body is cool and the other side |
warm,-result. imperfect circulation.
81 would much rather sleep with
my head out of window than just
inside a window where the wind was
blowing in," said Mr.. Field. "Sleep-
ing outdoors is good thing to pre-
vent colds.
1.-The proper way to ventilate a
room is not to raise the window all |
the way from the bottom, or pun it
all the way down from the top. Raise
one window about fourteen inches
from the bottom and lower the other
from the top about the same distance.
Then you have a good circulation of
air.
Most of the colds that the students
get out here at the gym are due to
men getting their heads wet in the
shower bath and then not drying them
perfectly. When they go out into the
cool air it chills them.
Another thing that will lead to
cold quickly is irregular eating, indi-
gestion or constipation. Anything
that tends to lower the normal resist
ance makes the individual liable to |
take a cold. Students who take
plenty of exercise rarely are consti-
pated.
The Track-Suit Fallacy.
"It is a popular fa1lacy that the
man who is strong and healthy can