RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 124, 19 February 1938, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current

Events

(By Kickshaw.s.) Unless that Cabinet in Austria is very strong we have a feeling it will be unable to hold together.

Many children, it is stated, are learning to swim at school. This week may have been wet, but we never realised it was as wet as that.

The authorities in India arc working under the very great disadvantage of never being able to decide if Gandhi is stripped for a tight.

“A few nights ago some members of a party were working out various problems,” says “Pansy.” “Here is one for which we all got different answers. How - many 3d. bits can a benzine tin hold? My guess was £760/10/-. How much do. you make it, please? An answer to this through your column would at least end our discussion.”

[lt is not possible to give an accurate figure. No two kerosene tins would hold the same number. Moreover, the number depends on tile method of packing, whether old or new threepenny bits were used, and various other factors. Packed in rows side by side and not utilising the waste space at the side, the total comes to about £BlO. Packed staggered, the total comes to about £939. Packed to matlicniaileal limits of closeness, the answer is about £lOOO, IVe suggest that “Pansy” gets a kerosene tin. fills it, and sends it t<» Kickshaws to deal with.]

News that a doctor in England has definitely found a cure for the “eoblwd cold” in the head, will be accepted with due regard for past experience by the cold-catchers of the "eobbudity.’’ In fact, some of the sceptics may possibly accept the news as a-tlshoo of lies. The kind-hearted members of the comm unity know only too Well the numerous cold cures they have tested and found Wanting. Whether we smile tolerantly or ironically at the latest news, it Is only too true that experts have been catching cold after cold in efforts to find a sure cure. The average layman has accepted these efforts with a politeness that restrains him from asking his physician about his own cold. The catching of colds, in fact, has been accepted with that fatalism with which we catch buses, trams, trouble, aii'lN fleas. These things are there to tie caught, and we rejoice when we miss the first cold but catch the last bus.

So much advice' has been given as to how to cure colds, it is to be hoped that if the new discovery proves satisfactory, we may be spared hurting our friends rather than undertake their pet cure for colds. Cold baths prevent colds, we are told, but statistics indicate that cold bath enthusiasts edteu their share of colds. The man in the open, It is alleged, is spared the cold in the head, but investigation proves he catches as many colds as his urban brother. Travelling in public vehicles is the cause of colds, maybe, but investigation proved that, out of a bateli of typists who were divided equally into public vehicle travellers and private car travellers, the two batches registered almost exactly the same number of colds each winter.,, As for the cure for colds, hot whisky, cold rum, lemons, nutmeg, and the skin of u frog, brought to the boll and swallowed at the crossroads, have all proved equally effective. One shrinks, indeed, from the hearty fellow who smacks one’s cold on the back and says, “My dear fellow, got a cold—take my advice, do this or out that.” One smiles and knows better.

Seriously, though, there has been it lot of quiet research into the prevention or cure Of the common cold. One can appreciate this fact in the light of the knowledge that the common wild costs the civilised world £200.000,000 a year. For 12 years the Chemical Foundation in America hunted for cures, finally handing over its researches to the Rockefeller Institute. Three experts at the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill have been on the job for many years. For 20 years intensive research into the Common cold has been conducted witli chimpanzees as patients. Other experts have been trying out the medieval cures of wolf’s liver dissolved in hot wine, honey mixed with the gall of a boar, and powders made from rabbitskins and bullocks’ horns. The Romans tell us that there was nothing like three kisses on the mouth of a mule for a cure, but the experts, it is understood have not gone so far as that. In almost every country in the world bands of research workers have spent the best part of a lifetime Investigating the cold. Nevertheless the cold fact remains, if we are to believe statistics, that every winter out of every 1000 persons in a community, 700 catch cold.

The common cold germ was claimed to have been isolated at least 15 years ago. It has been found at least four times since then. Indeed, the germ of common cold,has been given the name of Coryza. Three years ago an X-ray expert named W. G. Moore declared that the titanium ray is capable of destroying the cold germ in a mutter of minutes. Nevertheless, the community still surrenders to the sneeze. Another promising cure was said to be- ultra short radio waves. Arctic explorers tell us that the best cure for a cold is a trip to one or other of the Poles. We suspect, however, that if enough people lived at the poles little Coryza would be found there too. Just how the cold germ works is still a mystery. There are two lines of thought. Some experts maintain that our colds are the result of wet feet or draughts. Others assert that colds are caused by germs passed on by other people. Yet in cold epidemics there are people whiX remain in perfect health although harbouring in their nose and throat sufficient little coryzas to—a-tishoo—will sobeode please close the widdow—thugs.

“A Napier Reader” writes: —“As you seem to be informed on most topics, can you tell me: Whose idea it was to hold the King's Birthday on June 9; whether this was for 1937 only, or for the whole of his reign; why June 9 was chosen, when June 14 wou'd have been the right day of the month, if not the correct month, or June 3 retained partly as a reminder of George V; if June 9 was, or is to be held, throughout the Empire, or only in New Zealand? With appreciation for your column, which is the second item I read on opening the paper (the cartoon is the first).” [The Department of Internal Affairs has" kindly advised as follows: —“In answer to the question as to why June 9 was chosen, this was a case of New Zealand falling into line with what was being done throughout the British Commonwealth of Nations In 1937. As far as the future Is concerned, His Majesty has been pleased to approve of the New Zealand Government’s proposal that his birthday should be celebrated In each year on the first Monday in June, and legislation was passel in December last making provision ae eordingly and validating the celebration in so far as the year 1937 was eoncorned on June_9.”J