FOOLISH RISKS

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1927, 28 October 1926, Page 6

FOOLISH RISKS

DODGING THE COMMON COLD. Tike -brevity and accuracy of common phraseology have never been belter illustrated 'than in the phrase. “ catching cold,” which one hears everywhere (writes “ A Physician ” in the London Daily Mail). The house in wcliih every human hiding must live every minute of bis life—that is to say, his body—is .centrally heated.' ilk has its fumade, its digestive organs, where -fusil (or food) is transformed into healt. It h-a.s its system of pipes, the .arteries and. the Gains, and its force pump, (the heart, to diffuse the heat is® generated to every compartment. It has its. radiating and cooling mechanism, the skin, and such appendages -a.s the sweat glands. Above all. it has its engineer in charge (which we know as the Jicatcontr oiling centre), the vasomtoter system. To alter the Itemperatlure of a house warmed ‘by such mjflans 'in a few hours is not easy. Much model difficult is i't to adjust the far more complicated structure of a human .body. Given tlime, 'the System will adjust itself. Civilised man may migrate from the tropics to the archie and survive, provided ithat tflfe process be a gradual l , one; but to Walk ouit fflom the hot, into the dhi 11 io'f a frosty night, or to moist atmosphere of a crowded theatre rest a widt .body, over-hea'ted with strenuous exercise in the rain, in the languor of a 'drive home in an open car. is to ask more of the heat-regu-lator than ilt. can do.

The time allowed for adjustment is too. short, and upon ithbi body there steals the enemiy, .that liuirks always, awaiting its opportunity, in the great gateway o (fall ‘infection that we call th’s throat —the microbes of common cold, or it may be even pneumonia. It is this upsdtlting of -the routinfe of .life that is 'the enemy’, s opportunity. Pas-teiij, ifdr example, found that fowls, which normally are not suscep.tit'll? to infection by anlthrax, contracted that disease if before inoculation they wdre kept all nighlt Standing in cold water. There are probably several different “ cold ” germs, but tlC<ir attacks coincide almost always With exposure to “chill.” 'The lesson for aid of -us is obvious. Wear underclothes that will absorb perspiration, and remember that it is better Ito calrrty an overcoat unnecessaflily two or Ibliree tim, s than to he caught once in a chill win'd.