COMMON COLDS

Evening Star, Issue 22573, 15 February 1937, Page 12

COMMON COLDS

DRUGS THROUGH THE MBE Writing in the latest issue of tha ‘ Practitioner,’ Professor R. A. Dart, professor of anatomy, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, calls attention to the hitherto largely neglected methods of giving drugs by the nose, ■ During a period of training in a military camp Professor Dart instilled each night one teaspoonful of olive oil into the nose, purely with the idea of keeping the filtering action of this organ in as efficient a state as possible in a particularly dusty atmosphere. At the end of a fortnight he realised that over three ounces of olive oil had been absorbed into the body through the nose, and this led him to a' further study of the . subject. Anatomically, there is a close connection between the nose and the interior of the skull, which serves to explain how the poisons • of such disorders of the “ common cold or influenza so easily produce mental depression. Modern investigations have carried this matter a stage further by suggesting that established forms of mental disorder may, in_ fact, sometimes bo due to chronic disease of the sinuses adjoining the nose. Professor . Dart points out that not only is the nose the point of entry of the infecting ageni in diseases of the respiratory apparatus (such as those already mentioned, ?nd possibly also pneumonia), but that spread is so rapid that every step should be taken to test the effect or thorough-going nasal treatment, upon the course of such diseases. Paraffin oil treatment for the common cold, zinc ionisation treatment for hay fever, and treatment of the nasal sinuses in certain forms of mental disorder are a few examples of the importance of nasal treatment. Professor Dart pleads for an extensive study of the degree of absorption taking place in the nose for varieties of substances, useful, harmful, or otherwise. It is possible that the solution of the problem of the “ common cold ’ lies much more along the lines of adequate local treatment of the nose itself than hitherto has been considered likely.