CHLORINE GAS FOR COLDS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16497, 1 August 1924, Page 7

CHLORINE GAS FOR COLDS.

free: SNIFFS IN PUBLIC CLINICS. NEW YORK TESTS. NEW YORK, June 11. —Chlorine as a cure for colds is becoming the fashion in high and low American circles. Doctors believe they may be on the track, of a cure which wili overcome influenza epidemics and all pulmonary complaints. President Coolidge and Airs. Coolidge are the latest patients to undergo the chlorine cure; and. in fact, a large number of members of Congress and distinguished persons at the national capital have allowed themselves to be subjects for the experiments which the army medical service is carrying out.

Tlw chlorine cure was discovered by chance at tbe poison gas arsenal at Edge wood, Maryland, during the war. When the war influenza epidemic was at its height none of the employees at- the arsenal’s chlorine plant suffered. ‘Medical officers were interested bv this inexplicable fact. They investigated, ajid found the chlorine pure, which only lately lias cmne to public notice.

The method of treatment is to mix one ounce of chlorine gas with 60,000 cubic feet of air in a room made air-tight, so tlial the proportions of chlorine and air pan be rout rolled. Patients sit in the room for about an hour, simply breathing the chlorine air. which is renewed from time to time. One treatment often is sufficient to drive the cold away, but sometimes two treatments are taken.

Mr. Weeks, the Secretary of War. cured himself of a stubborn cold last winter by taking tin* treatment. He became an entbusiastie convert to chlorine, and spread the news throughout Washington that the War Department could cure anybody's cold. That started the fashionable rush to the chlorine chamber. People with other complaints offered themselves for experimental treatment, and the officers of the medical corps report that cures have been effective in cases of coryza, laryngitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis, whooping-cough, and influenza.