5. _A COLD_.--We put on a thinner dress than usual, or, when heated,
sit in a cool place. The skin is chilled, and the perspiration checked.
The blood, no longer cleansed and reduced in volume by the drainage
through the pores, sets to the lungs for purification. That organ is
oppressed, breathing becomes difficult, and the extra mucus secreted by
the irritated surface of the membrane is thrown off by coughing. The
mucous membrane of the nasal chamber sympathizes with the difficulty, and
we have "a cold in the head," or a catarrh. In general, the excess of
blood seeks the weakest point, and develops there any latent disease
[Footnote: A party go out for a walk and are caught in a rain, or, coming
home heated from some close assembly, throw off their coats to enjoy the
deliciously cool breeze. The next day, one has a fever, another a slight
headache, another pleurisy, another pneumonia, another rheumatism, while
some of the number escape without any ill feeling whatever. The last had
vital force sufficient to withstand the disturbance, but in the others
there were various weak points, and to these the excess of blood has gone,
producing congestion.] Where one person has been killed in battle,
thousands have died of colds.
To restore the equipoise must be the object of all treatment. We put the
feet in hot water and they soon become red and gorged with the blood which
is thus called from the congested organs. Hot footbaths have saved
multitudes of lives. It is well in case of a sudden cold to go immediately
to bed, and with hot drinks and extra clothing open the pores, and induce
free perspiration. This calls the blood to the surface, and, by equalizing
and diminishing the volume of the circulation, affords relief. [Footnote:
Severe colds may often be relieved in their first stages by using lemons
freely during the day, and taking at night fifteen or twenty grains of
sodium bromide. Great care, however, should be observed in employing the
latter remedy, except under the advice of a physician.]
6. _Catarrh_ commonly manifests itself by the symptoms known as those
of a "cold in the head," and is produced by the same causes. It is an
inflammation of the mucous membrane lining the nasal and bronchial
passages. One going out from the hot dry air of a furnace-heated room into
the cold damp atmosphere of our climate can hardly avoid irritating and
inflaming this tender membrane. If our rooms were heated less intensely,
and ventilated more thoroughly, so that we had not the present hothouse
sensitiveness to cold air, this disease would be far less universal, and
perhaps would disappear entirely. [Footnote: Dr. Gray gives the following
table:
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