The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1935-02-01


person in this country older than an
infant who has not had at least few
colds on the debit side of his ledger
Colds are the most general disease we
experience.
Now when you have cold just start
ing, the most sensible thing is to stop
it Immediately, and the sooner you
start the more successful you will be.
If you say to yourself, II won't
bother now, but I'll do something to-
night" YOU may be in for three-day
siege, which is the normal run of a
cold that gets good Roadway, or you
may be in for longer siege that may
end in bronchitis, sinusitis, pleurisy or
pneumonia
Medical science has been moderate
ly successful in proving out ways for
building up the body's resistance
against colds, but thus far in the way
of stopping cold that has started,
modern science has not been able to
make any improvement upon grand
mothers remedies. Grandmother knew
that modern science has been able to
do has been to tell why the remedies
were successful.
Now, what did grandmother do? She
told you to get into your night clothes
while she filled pan with hot water.
Then she set the pan on the floor with
a chair beside it, and you sat on the
chair with your feet in the water and
blanket around you until you were
wet with perspiration. Then she tucked
you into bed with several layers of
warmed blankets over you. But be-
fore she tucked you close around the
head, she gave you glass of hot lem
onade or of sweetened vinegar water.
If your throat was sore, she put a
warm flannel turpentine pack around
your neck. Then she left you to sweat
it out, and by morning, while you were
still weak, the cold was gone, and by
noon, if you bundled up we'll, you
were able to go into the winter air,
with little danger Of the cold coming
back.
Grandmother figured that these he
roic measures were lots better-and
lots less bother in the end-than hav-
ing you hang around the house for
days coughing your head off and per-
haps getting worse, and besides the
rest of the family wouldn't be in such
danger of catching the cold from you.
Well, science says grandmother did
the wisest thing possible. When you
have beginning cold, your skin is
clammy and cold, and the blood is col
lected in the internal organs. The
sweating forces the contracted skin
vessels to dllate, the sweat glands
secrete, and the blood becomes concen-
trated by the loss of water from the
sweat glands. This causes water to
be drawn from the body cells into the
blood stream, and there is complete re-
distribution of fresh blood Heating the
skin of the feet is much better than
applying heat to any other single body
area since our feet are important Their
NAL regulators of the body. The blan-
ket prevents heat loss.
The hot lemon juice or the hot vine
gar water helps get the digestive sys-
tenn in order, which was put out of
order by first the chilling and then the
heating Of the body skin, with the con-
sequence that the normal action Of the
stomach was upset and no acid could
be secreted into it. The lemon juices
give artificial acidity to the stomach
and the heat in the "ade" causes a
local increase in the blood supply to
the stomach. Thus the digestive sys-
TEN becomes normal and active again
without being loaded with food, and
there is no danger of an accumulation
Of body acids.
Likewise the flannel cloth moistened
with warm turpentine and wrapped
around the neck Is sound in its scien-
tific principle. 1t is form Of counter
irritation, which has been good therapy
for centuries and centuries.
A day and night of grandmother's
kind of treatment will almost invari-
ably stop beginning cold.
It is estimated that the average per-
son engaged in gainful industrial en-
ployment loses about two ana one-han
days per year from his work because
of colds.
This causes loss of millions of dol
lars in wages alone, and in addition
there is the loss in energy and eff
cheney for many days following an at
tack, the loss from illness due to colds,
and there is the cost of medicine and
the medical and nursing services.
Colds are in their most infectious
stage at their beginning. Perhaps some
day we shall become so enlightened
that employers will send employees
home Immediately at the first indica-
ton of cold SO that other employees
won't be infected. and teachers will
do the same with pupils the moment
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