Evening star., 1933-01-13

What Is it which makes some persons
practically free from the common cold?
These co-d@free men and women are
study, one to which medical science
might turn
Everybody knows one or more of
these happy people.
They do rot look any healthier than
other persons, most of whom suffer one
or more times every Winter from a
cold, grip or influenza.
Mostly the person practically immune
to the common cold practices no par
ticular hygiene to ward it off.
He doesn't have to.
Very few of these fortunate ones have
any idea what it is they do or 90 not
do which keeps them free from sneezes
and sniffleS.
In fact, many of them are frequent
sneeZers.
A sneeze, with them, means nothing
much.
1t is here that many persons who are
afraid Of colds, and tend to run from
sneezes, make mistake, for there
seems to be no danger to be anticipated
from the flying spray from their noses
and thToatS, as unpleasant as 1t may
be from an esthetic standpoint.
With some men this is a sort of
inherited tendency. One well known
WaShingtonian sneeZcS every time he
comes out of a building into bright
sunshine.
He rarely suffers from cold. but
cannot walk so feet in the sun without
sneezing in a most resounding. and, to
the friend afraid of colds, terrifying
manner
1t is noticed that many persons al
most free from catching colds are OF a
thin build. almost to the point of
frailneSs.
Is there anything to be surmised from
this?
Not much. the lay observer may
think.
Mo- every thin man is free from
colds, by any means, nor every fat one
infected with them.
Here again generalities, always so
dangerous, are worse than nothing.
1t must be something more than
weight, after all, for cne may happen
to know a typical jolly fat man who is
no more prone to catch cold than his
neighbor, if as much.
Let us look for moment at the daily
habits Of one Of these cold-free per-
sons.
Consider the strange case of Mr.: A.
He is typical American citizen,
liking the things which the typical
citizen likes.
Commonly he stays up every night
until midnight or after listening to his
radio.
During the day he smokes inces-
tantly, using two Of the three popular
formS-the cigar and the pipe. He
does not smoke cigarettes. but it is a
wonder that he does not. 1t just seems
to be accidental that he does not smoke
them.
If We go to lunch with him we dis
cover that he is totally ignorant of
clcdern food science as it has been
developed.
He eats neither as technologist nor
as a scientist. He eats because food
tastes good. Perhaps he eats two or
three times as much as he ought to,
judged as a sentient being.
He may felicitate himseh on his
ability to keep free from colds, when
all the time he knows nothing at all
about it, arrogating to himself q
knowledge which he does not possess.
We may wonder just what a medical
man would make of him, If anything.
Once upon time there was "class"
formed Of persons WHO were submitted
to certain types of food experiments.
Something of the same sort of thing
might be done with a group of these
apparently cold-free human beings In
an effort to determine what it is that
makes them that way"
1t might be found, fer instance, that
they possess certain anti-bodies, or
something or other, which necessarily
work to Keep them free from colds.