Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1915-09-02
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.



Than in Any Other Way.
More people suffer from = cold than
any other aiImsnt; and certainly there
is none more likely to result in serious
disease. Two Of the most serious dis
eases that follow common cold are
pneumonia and tuberculosis.
Pneumonia counts its victims in all
life periods-infancy and childhood
and old age; on the other hand, tuber-
culosis destroys prominently the
youth, the Wage-earner in the prime
Of life, the mother-men and women
who are doing the worlds work. From
the early teens up to the forty-flfth
year tuberculosis has from time i'm
memorial up to our day and generation
been claiming every third or fourth
aduH white life and for several CEN
turtles past every other negro adult
life. Is this, then, slight thing to
which the common cold so frequently
leads.
Such a cold il itself generally an
infectiye process; In most cases the
congestion is caused by. germ, and
later the pneumonia or tuberculosis
germ finds fertile soil for it's growth
Colds seem to be the exclusive priv.
ilege Of civilization. The human race
probably did not snufle much until it
began to build houses and to wear
clothes.
Next after building houses our fore
fathers learned how to heat them and
to shut them up, keeping out the fresh
air. More colds are taken from over
heated rooms and bad air than In any
other way, through constantly re-
breathing their own poisonous breaths
mingled with the exhalations Of the
rest of the family.
In superheated room we incur a
congestion OF the circulation beneath
the skin. Then we go out from such
4 room into a freezing temperature
and these blood vessels are at once
contracted and the surface OF the body
chilled.
The blood in the body must go some
where, and being crowded out of the
blood-vessels beneasn the skin it must
go to the internal organs and tissues.
Thus Catching cold" is really catch.
ing heat. While the bodily surface is
cold, the interior is unduly hot by rea-
son of the congestion.
People wear too much clothing,
which keeps the body too warm and
harbors disease germs.
To add to this comes the amazing
superstition about poisonous night air,
which leads to the windows of sleep
ing rooms being Theoretically sealed at
night, for that matter, throughout the
winter. Some one has said, "No won,
der the country air is pure, for the PEG
pie, keep all the bad air shut up in
their houses"
For some unexplainable reason peo-
pie continue to fear this most precious
of gifts. The antipathy for fresh air
Is essentially the same as that which
the tramp evinces for soap and water
Not fresh air, but the want OF 1t, Ii
the cause OF many diseases. Fresh air
is natures disinfectant. There is no
better.
There are epidemics OF colds, and
from one case alone whole family,
Office force or shop will presently be
suffering. One may escape colds by
avoAding cars, theaters and public
buildings when there is an epidemic,
for the imperfect ventilation in these
places renders them hotbeds of infec,
ton
If you have adenoids or enlarged
tonsils, have them removed. Breathe
through the nose. II one fears an in.
lection, he would better douche the
nose and gargle with solution as hot
as is comfortable with one-hah tea
spoonful of table salt in tumbler OF
water.