The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-04-26
By WILLIAM BRADY, M. D.

My husband agrees With you that exposure to cold or dampness Is not cause of illness, In itself, (writes a downtrodden reader) but he maintains that such exposure is often pneumonia, etc, He admits that under sterile conditions such as your friend the arctic ex- I plorer encountered, little eXpos- ure Is of no consequence, as there are no germs about tMrs. V. B. My friend the arctic explorer will be astonished to learn that sterile conditions Srevail anywhere in the arctic. YouS husband, Ma'am, will know Stetfansson must have been completely off his trolley when he described the birds, with the hum of bees and the buzz of insects more unpleasant and with green grass and flowers" of the summer time in the far north where Stefapsson and his party were living in the arctic N9l3 to l9l8, In his book The Friendly Arctic" published py MacMillan, '25) Stefansson quotes EEblaw, American botanist who gathered more than 120 spe- cies of towering plants In one vi- cinity six or seven hundred miles north of the arctic circle. Your husband might enjoy "The Friendly Arctic, ma'am-he might even learn something from the book.
 Soldiers whose physical condition Is far above that of the 4F at home may suffer no serious harm from exposure to cold or wet (writes a mollycoddle) because their stamin IS so great that the exposure does not bring their physical demeanor down to level where germs can attack =. 1T. H. W.
 Come, come, Sir, merely substi- tuting such terms as physical con- ditlon" and physical demeanor" for resistance doesn't make that hackneyed argument any better,
 No one, layman, scientist or phy- Sician, can define, much less deter mine in advance whether any indi- vidual has physical conditions. physical demeanor," resistance" or whatever vague name you prefer to call It. Tn every insatnce, 1 maintain without fear of contradic- ton, this theory, idea or suggestion Is on afterthought.
 Ninety-rine per cent of the med- ical profession, medical scientists and health authorities disagree with my teachings about the harmless ness of exposure to cold or wet (sfort of frostbite or freezing), one of my medical colleagues asserted He does not reveal how he arrived at that estimate.
 Sometimes under the harsh im- pact of the reaction wonder wha. is the use of putting my head against the stone wall of tradition the wall seems still pretty solid after years of hard battering.
 But, thank goodness, just when I'm feeling as low as Santa Mon- lea fog Ct gets your feet weD, a letter arrives from some one who knows what he's talking about, and breaks up the yellow streak in short order-such letter as that of the forest ranger, to be printed here tomorrow
 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
 Have You Tried Penicillin?
 Have Ben Told large doses Of pen icillin will render man sterile. Re- eyed five million units for a neck Infection. N. R. M)
 Answer-It has noch u
 Answer-It has no such effect. Now I have received every conceiv- Ible query about the powers of pen lcillin, except one about Its capa- city for general housework.
 Vague
 Would you define medical words bit more clearly-the exact mean ing cannot be found in an ordinary dictionary. tRs Al.
 AnSwer-1 try to do so, sometimes at risk of irking readers by repe- tition. It would help more if you mentioned an instance or two of my use of medical words without defining them.
 All Right
 Is it all right to get your teeth cleaned by dentist? I mean, does it injure the enamel? Dentists say Cnce the enamel is broken or lost it can never be replaced. CT. H.
 Answer-Yes, in fact no one but your dentist can clean your teeth safely. and no one can have clean