“COLDS” IN THE POCKET

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 2 August 1922, Page 5

“COLDS” IN THE POCKET

... DEADLY HANDKERCHIEF

Do you keep a cold in your pocket—the handkerchief pocket I Of course, the idea -has never occurred to you. But think a moment, eays a New York paper. When you have a cold, you blow your nose frequently. After doing so you put your handkerchief back into your pocket. It carries with it great numbers of _ cold gems, which find in the pocket just the warm, comfortable, unclean quartei-s they need to keep them alive. The pocket thus becomes a source of infection. You draw upon it for other and subsequent colds, reinfecting yourself. A man’s handkerchief come? from the wash bacterially clean; it is “sterile,” germ-free. The first thing ho does with it is to put it into his pocket, which is one of the dirtiest places in the world, swarming with bacteria. Turn a man’s pocket inside out, and see if it does not correspond to that descriptoin. Along the seam at the bottom is a collection of nasty . dust; in the corners are bunches of dirt, a mixture of dust and clotii-fibres. Yet it is in this place that a man keeps the piece of linen which he is constantly using to clean his face. But about a woman’s handkerchief. She does not keep it in a pocket. Is that one reason why women have fewer colds than men? Why is a woman’s handkerchief so much smaller than a man’s—a mere scrap of linen and lace? or daintiness? Yes, perhaps; but the main reason is that she does nob need a large handkerchief. One rarely secs a woman blow her nose. Does lack of a handkerchief pocket have anything to do with the fact that women have tower colds? Take note of women in public places or wherever you meet them. They make frequent use of a handkerchief but nearly always it is for some trifling purpose, such as dabbing a little powder on their noses or wiping their lips. For them its customary receptacle is a muff or handbag, or, if indoors, the sleeve or the ueck of the dress. Their handkerchiefs are at least relatively clean. Bo observant in church or at the theatre. There is always mure or less coughing, but it is men who do it mostly. 1 The germs that make coughs and colds snuggle down in the corners of the pocket, ready to leap out at their best at a moment when his normal vitality is lowered. Everybody, no matter how healthy, has such moments. If fatigued by a hard day's work, Lis resisting power is lessened. He pulls out his infected liandkerchief to wipe his nose, and the cold germs get him again. If he has a cough, lie uses his handkerchief. It goes into Ids pocked, infected. The warmth of his body keeps the pocket at just about the right temperature to nicely incubate the I germs. 1

: The facts hero given arc on tho authority of the Public Health Service, which says that a person suffering from a cjokl should never use a handkerchief for blowing his nose. The proper thing to do in such circumstances is to use a piece of cheesecloth or other suitable fabric, which may bo kept handy in a paper hag. Afterward both cheesecloth and paper bag should bo burned. The “common cpld” is the cause of incalculably nioro mischief than is generally imagined.