WAR ON THE COLD GERM

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17440, 11 December 1930, Page 12

WAR ON THE COLD GERM

£40,000 FIGHTING FUND MASS ATTACK BY U.S. DOCTORS NEW YORK, Oct. 21. The common told inflicts on American wage earners an annual loss oi £'100.000.000. Such ii .gigantic deficit, with its attendant injury to production, has aroused the medical services attached to big organisations to make a combined attack on the distressing and widespread complaint.

Tnev are aided in their search for a cure i»y a £40.000 gift made by the Chemical Foundation to the Johns Hopkins Hospital at Baltimore. The sum is being expended over a. period of five years in an effort lo trace the common cold to its origin. COLD GERM CLAIM

Oul of the research work now proceeding onlv one definite claim is made of a

"cold germ." Dr. J. A. Pfeiffer, of the University of Maryland, claims tho isolation of the perm micrococcus coryza. for which he offers vaccine as a cure. Such immunity, however, be promises for no longer than from one to three vears.

At tho present time four girl graduates of Comber College, Baltimore, are submitting themselves to inoculation with the'cold organism cultures and various serums. Each receives a fee of UlO while she rests in hospital. Cornell University, at Ithiea, New York, is submitting its cold-stricken undergraduates to ultra violet light baths. Each student susceptible to colds has one light bath a week, exposing tho whole body. It is claimed thai the treatment reduces susceptibility by 42 per cent. YOUTH SUFFERS MOST

Medical statisticians state that youth suffers most from the common cold. The Milbank .Memorial Fund organisation of New York, after a study of 100.030 people, announces that among young people one in live suffers from cold, whereas among elderly people of from 60 to 70 years the proportion is only one in 10. One theory is that the effects of the common cold are so malign that susceptible people are killed off in middle ago, and only the fittest, survive. It is the fashion now in schools Lo organise "cold dubs," the members of which are pledged to combat the complaint by common-sense methods involving no outlay or expense. These include :'—

Drink plenty of orange and grapefruit juice. Wear warm clothes. Keep the feet dry. Avoid draughts, Wash Ibe hands frequently. Eight hours' sleep at night, and don't won'v.