The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-01-26
WEAR NICHTCAP,
 PREVENT COLDS
This Was 18th Century Pre- scription and Writer Says
 It Still Holds Good.

The nightcap is not a part of the standard sleeping equipment of the modern man and women, especially those under sixty. Yet this very bit Of slumber stuff should be universal iy worn right today if the human race would be absolutely free of colds, according to a Paris physician, pr. Louis St. Maurice.
 The doctor Is quoted in an articls by Henry Wales in the Chicago Tri- bune as of the opinion that uncov- cred craniuIns while sleeping at night are the cause of colds. yet, even in- Huenza. The physician points out the fact that years ago when people all wore nightcaps few colds appeared, there was no such thing as grip and influenza was unheard of. Eighteenth century literature does not contain mention of these diseases.
 "On the other hand," the doctor is quoted as saying, tart and literature of the past, well up into the eign- teenth century, show that every one, rich and poor, young and old, men and women, all wore nightcaps. The linen or cotton headgear for bed was just as common as the nightgown.
 Toward the end or the eighteenth century the nightcap began to fall
 
 years 1t has practically disappeared. Today it is unheard of in France, in your United States, in England, :n Italy, in Germany-it Is worn mo- where. But, on the other hand, the need of protection for the head dur ing the night has increased during the last century. The average brain today is larger and heavier than it was 100 years ago. The brain Is larger, but not the head. A mans cranium - or a woman's, for that matter-has not changed in average size for more than twenty centuries But the brain is constantly getting bigger and heavier.
 Brain Heavier.
 That means that the protecting shell of bone, the cranium, is getting thinner to make room for the brain. Eventually, perhaps in another couple of hundred years. we shall l have a race with skulls as thin and frail as eggshells, so that every one guards like your American football players, or as aviators wore at the beginning of the war.
 Investigation proves that @. cold in the head is the necessary setting for an attack of influenza Further investigation shows that in an over whelming majority of cases a cold ia caught during the night, while one is in bed. Wet feet are not respon- sible for many colds, especially among adults. In fact, while one is moving about, and exercising, no matter how slightly, he is not likely to catch cold. He is when he is ab- soIute1y motionless, relaxed, with the body warm under the bedc1othes and the head exposed to the cold current of air that comes in from the window and is sucked up the chimney or around corners.
 ''To cure a cold tie a woolen wrap around the head, well down on the forehead and over the cranium in the back. Leave 1t there all night. Drink 8 hot rum or hot wfne-or, in Amer ica, hot lemonade-and perspire all night In the morning the cold in the head will be gone. But be careful, or by the very next night you will catch another cold, because you have not got your head muffled up. When one starts to wear a nightcap it is dangerous to leave off wearing it, es- pecia11y during the winter or rainy season. Kansas City Star.