Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1913-11-05
PASSING aCOLDsr AROUND


PASSING .COLDsn AROUND
Come on out-the air is fne.'
William Brady, M. D., in The hide
pendent. @
I We shall have to stop passing hat
cold around. Everybody now
agrees that colds are contagious,
regardless Of contributing factors.
Many health departments now re-
quire physicians to report all cases
of pneumonia, just as they do diph-
liberia, and this action has given a
great impetus to the campaign
against the great indoor plague.
By Indoor Plague we mean the
much too common cold. It is so
positively an indoor Infection that
good authorities declare we cannot
possibly catch any of the respira-
tory diseases in the open. Proximity
to cold sufferer indoors is essen
tial to the production of fresh cases
of coryza ("head colby, sore throat,
tonsilitis, quinsy, bronchitis, pneu-
monia, diphtheria, tuberculosis or
pleurisy. That is, proximity to a
careless patient. .........
The reason why these diseases
cannot be acquired outdoors re-
CARELESS of the weather, is that the
we'll recognized, causative bacteria
cannot survive outside the body in a
cold place or in direct sunlight.
Nothing is so hateful to a pneumo-
MIA germ, for instance, as snappy
cold air or bright sunshine. .,.......
This pneumonia germ, called the
pneumocooeus, is the worst enemy
of civilization today, causing more
illness, discomfort and deaths than
does the notorious tubercIe bacillus
itself Not only is it the seed of
pneumonia in children and adults,
but also Of most cases of tonsilitis,
quinsy, simple head cold" bronchi-
It's, pleurisy, chest abscess; and a
frequent cause of mastoid and ear
inflammations, abscess formation in
the slnuses or skull cavities, even
inflammation Of the appendix, val
vular heart Inflammation, and some
times fatal peritonitis.
The versatile microbe does not
stop there, but in many instances
infects the joints and produces a
characteristic attack of infamma-
tory rheumatism. We could truth
fully paint the character of the
pneumococcus in darker hues, but
enough has been said to show that
he has much to answer for. The
pneumococcus, aided by minor CO.
laborators, is briefly. the germ that
puts the catch in ''catching cold"
The most startling thing about
this much too common ''cold"' germ
is, however, the fact that he resides
habitually in virulent, that is, bust
nesslike form, in the mouths,
Threats or nasal passages of twenty
per cent. of all adults. ! In tame
form we find him present in prac-
tically every mouth = especially
where the teeth are neglected or the
tOnsils diseased.
How shall we stop spreading
''colds''?
Stop splitting, except in proper re-
ceptacles which will dispose Of the
expectoration in a sanitary manner.
Don't sleep two in a bed. No open
face sneezing or coughing. Let
~"cold'' sufferers use separate dishes
and utensils. Boil their handker-
chiefs before tossing them into. the
wicker basket. See that children
swap neither pencils or gum nor
candy. Don't isolate the ''cold''
victim as you would leper: just
be indefinitely clean - medically
aseptic-in your relations with him.
But most important of all, forget
your weather-phobia. Come on out
Il