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THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, Tuesday, OctoBER 25, 1938.,
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TUESDAY, OCтORE 25, 1938.
THE FIERY DEATH
OF CANTON
the
hostilities.
days has been likened
The VERY COMMON COLD
66
TISHOO, atishoo!" The gentleman in the corner of the bus sneezes vigorously and mutters, half apologetically, "I think I must have caught a cold."
By Professor
A. M. Low
will provo of immense value.. The literature on the scorch during the last few years is. staggering.
Mice, ferrets, and even the hedgehog have been recruited. Thousands of people have been. examined for statistics. dreds have inoculation.
Hun- volunteered for
But one must come down to the hard fact that no one can say for certain. "This is the thing responsible for the com- mon-cold."
There is no need to be pessi-- mistic. The announcement may
.
Twelve hours later his stream- ing eyes and nose leave him in no doubt, and threo days later, hour, and others again who There seems little doubt that half the people who had been swear by sweating the cold out a degree of immunity or resist aftting within ten feet of him by violent exercise or drowning ance can be built up, but how to build it up certainly remains a have no doubt either that it was it in whisky. indeed a cold that he had.
They may truthfully have mystery. They begin to sneeze and been cured, but since the cures cough themselves, and travelling work with only a fraction of one Kissing Is Dangerous come to-morrow. Other germs to work in crowded trains and per cent, of the sufferers they Recently a doctor working in have proved equally baffling and buses soon pass on the infection. convince me rather of the power Cologne reported that engaged been brought to book, or rather
I have seen a statement that of faith than that they represent couplas are not liable to catch the microscope, at last. the descendants of a single pair cures in the accepted sense. colds to the same extent as other Probably if one tenth of the of rats may number 36,000 in Your doctor cannot do more people.
num now lost through twelve months and that the cost for you if you catch a cold than His explanation is that the were given for research we to the nation of feeding each rat advise you to go to bed, take excitement builds up the resist should have the answer within is ten shillings a week.
aspirin, keep warm and drink nnce of the body to the attack a short time. Colds multiply in the game plenty of liquid.
of the germs. It seems a rea- - As it is, research has been way, probably faster, and the
He will be happy if the cold sonable deduction from premises carried out largely with funds. cost to the nation in lost work- ing time, inefficiency and subse- simply runs its normal course which may, or may not, be true. provided by individuals.
without any of the many possible Unfortunately, remaining en- Henry Royce, the great motor que hi pus pe euch complications setting in. He has gaged all one's life is a joy given engineer, who had had personal more than ten shillings per cold. nothing out of a bottle that he to few, and the immunity must, experience of the devastating We have a National Rat Week, can give to make you fit again therefore, be short-lived. It effect of colds upon workers in Why not a National Cold Week? in eight or even 24 hours.
Scienco Is Baffled
000,000.
Vaccino Treatment
thun cure.
to the year is at least double the figures is bound to be difficult, and. burning of Moscow in 1812, quoted.
secondly, that in any case the The common cold, which Sir immunisation is short-lived. Kingsley Wood when Minister of
which presaged Napoleon's re-
If you have had measles you But the treat from Russia.
similarity is in dimensions of
causes.
Tracking Down The
orc
colds
Sir
might be pointed out that kiss his factories, left one tenth of If, for just one week, every.
ing is an obvious danger, and his fortune for medical research person suffering from a cold was
that even among engaged people largely directed towards the common cold. The Rockefeller isolated, and had no opportunity
to THESE are the facts should be strictly confined Institute has spent many thou- of spreading the infection to
about the curing of themselves!
sands of pounds. fellow travellers and fellow colds. What about prevention? Theoretically, the healthiest workers, there might be a tre- Most discuses have been "mas- people should be the most im- The "Peak” Period mendous reduction in the num-tered" by prevention rather mune from colds, but if wo
But these ber of colds during the subse-
necessarily accept the ordinary definition of small sums compared with what quent aix months.
Large tracts of tropical land healthiness this is not true. we spend, for instance, in pre- have been made habitable for Athletes are just as susceptible paring to blow other people to the white man, not because our to colds as other people.
Various dicta are said to build the common cold might prove to pieces. The cost of conquering I shall probably be told that treatment of malaria is much such a week would cost a vast improved, but because we know up resistance to colds, and it is be no greater than that of builde sum of money in lost working how to prevent catching it. If certain, from experiments con- ing a single battleship, which hours. Few people realise that you don't let a female mosquito ducted not long ago, that addi- will be obsolete in ten years, Canton, proud capital of the every year colds cost us a sum bite you, you can't catch malaria, tional doses of vitamins do give while colds will still be with us.
Smallpox, Cantonese for centuries, is burn-variously estimated at figures
diphtheria, and a certain-resistance, but there is It seems to me that the collec- ing itself to ashes, presenting between. £20,000,000 and £50,- other diseases have been con- nothing so definite as the im- tion of statistics is inclined to
quered by immunisation.
munisation doctors can confer content some people rather than poignant disaster most
And this is only the direct China has suffered since the cost. One eminent medical man same principles to colds? The
Why cannot we apply the against diphtheria.
attempt to discover the cause of When all the figures are ana- colds which might lead to a cure. outbreak of the Sino-Japanese has stated that half the disabling answer is, first, that colds are lysed, it seems to boil down to Nevertheless,
The fiery holocaust discases have their origins in probably caused not by a single the statement, "It works with facts that have been discovered some of the which has been rapidly devour-colds, and if this is the case, type of germ, but by a mixture
are of great interest. For in- ing the city for the past three then the ultimate cost every of many, so that immunisation some people."
stance, in Britain colds break out most frequently after the: Gorm
end of the holiday acason. The THE cause of the com- general interpretation is that the mon cold remains a changeableness of the weather Health called "Public Enemy will seldom get it again-you Number One," is a disease that are immunised for life. But, as mystery, and the solution of in September is responsible. the blaze, rather than in its has so far baffled medical we all know, you can catch one this mystery should show the It may be that our holiday in fresh air has actually reduced Moscow WES not set science.
cold after another.
way both to practicable prevon- alight deliberately. It was, ac-
Diphtheria, smallpox and a Vaccines are made which are tion and to certain and quick the little natural resistance we acquire through continued mild cording to historians, the result score of other deadly diseases intended give iminunity, cure.
infection. A tremendous amount of of sheer carelessness on the part have been conquered, but if They may be injected, or in cor-
There is another "peak" must tain cases taken by the mouth, research has been directed in of its own inhabitants. It was doctors are frank they
success they achieve recent years towards catching period after Christmas, perhaps
to due
lessened resistance neither a defiant gesture by the admit that they do not know but the
the little germ, so small that it
The cowed Roztopchin, nor a wilful what causes a cold, how to cure seems to vary very widely. act of incendiarism by Napo-a cold or how to prevent you I have known a few people passes the finest filter, that is through over-indulgence.
"peak periods in other coun- shaken responsible. from catching cold.
who have completely
the same lcon. The Canton fire has been
There has been a great deal of themselves free of the danger of Actually it seems probable trics with roughly created by deep-rooted causes solid research work, a very great colds by injections. There are that many germs, working climate are different. In the and motivated by a frustrated [dent more of sheer guesswork. others who do not get the desired singly and in combination are U.S.A. they are roughly a month
later. responsible. They may be bitterness, which makes all the
Far greater progress has been immunity.
Two years ago the Rockefeller related to influenza, or they may explain peaks in terms of sudden Attempts have been made to made in the fight against cancer
for the Who precisely is to blame (if than against the cold, and if the Foundation carried out experi- simply pave the way
direction of the prevailing wind, the word can be used in its cause of cancer remains elusive ments during which some 400 influenza bacillus to do its work drops in temperature, of the at least surgeons can now hold people of all kinds were inocu- in favourable circumstances.
of the prevalence of thunder and When I say it is all guess- fullest sense) for Canton's rag-out real hopes of a cure in many lated with the inactivated virus
Much of ing inferno, it is impossible at cases.
of colds or influenza.
work, I am not suggesting that even of wireless. The results varied enormously, a vast amount of valuable work this is very interesting but, one this moment to say. Theories Not so with the common cold.
must admit, guesswork. one has not been done.
We are groping in the dark there are in abundance, but for There is an apocryphal but illu- but the report contained
sentence: "What On the contrary, the research the present the only facts known minating story of a millionaire significant are that the many conflagra- who caught a cold and consulted can be said with certainty is of such men as Dr. C. H. Stuart and there is a tendency to think not Harris, Dr. David Thomson, Dr. that every object we touch is the eminent physician. "I've that the vaccination did tions, which have sprung up in an a dozen different parts of the got to get well quickly," he said. give protection in all cases, even A. R. Dochez and Sir Patrick missing key.
Laidlaw, to mention only a fow, "What treatment can you give when it had a good chance." city, have as their origin a
me?" The physician described wilful and deliberate intention.
an elaborate treatment. The Great Fire of Canton, as
"How long will it take me to history will learn to recall it, get free of the cold?" asked the will also be cited as the greatest millionaire. "Fourteen days."
"And if I just let the cold run blaze over deliberately attempt- ed. Hugo areas aro being laid its course, when can I expect to waste as this is written, and be well?" "In a fortnight."
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There have been various treat- millions of dollars worth of pro-ments by drugging, inhalation perty is being destroyed, not an and so on which have been suc- Insignificant portion of it being cessful with a proportion of owned by foreign concerns. sufferers, but broadly speaking History cannot point to any-the treatment of a cold to-day is
much the same as it was prociso thing approaching a
years ago.
50
parallel, although it is interest- There are people who claim to ing to recall that the four have cured themselves by star- GUARANTEED greatest fires the world has ving for 24 hours, others who known-London, Chicago, Mos-have achieved the same end by cow, and now Canton, all oc-drinking a pint of water every
during curred
the autumn months of either September or Great Fire of Canton-a story
NO INNER BORING WHATSOEVER, October. In fact, for those who which has yet to be written in
ALL POPULAR SHAPES
SOLE IMPORTERS FOR THE FAR EAST:- C. INGENOHL'S CIGAR STORES
are eager to seck coincidences, full. Though there are sicken- It is worth reminding that, two ing features about the catas- days before the outbreak of the trophe, yet these are not as Canton fire, it was the 67th an-foarful as they could have been. niversary of the devastating fire There seems to have been little of Chicago, an event which or no loss of life as a direct re- formed the theme for the filmsult of the conflagrations. And "In Old Chicago" shown recent-behind one's reactions to it all ly in Hongkong.
lies a feeling that it the work
LA PERLA DEL ORIENTE But these facts and coin-of Chinese patriots who refused
· HONGKONG
SHANGHAI
cidences, interesting though to allow the Japanese, to, enjoy they are, can find but a second-the whole fruits of easy con- ary position in the story of the quest.
to
GRIN AND BEAR IT
"You don't know how well off you are-
I can't complain; of a thing;
Reducing The Risk
AND
ND so we are thrown back on the question
By Lichty of what we can do to minimise
the effects of this national menace which a medical officer not long ago said "is more dan- gerous than
smallpox and chicken pox." -
About the one certain thing we know in that the germs are passed from ono person to an- other, probably in minute parti- cles of moisture that can remain suspended in the air for long- periods.
If wo reduce the number of those particles and their distri- bution, we can go a long way to preventing colds from passing from one person to another.
Experiments have shown that Jair conditioning greatly reduces
the chances of infection. In: other words, in ideal conditiona of ventilation there is less risk of infection.
It is usual to blame cinemIAN and theatres for spreading in fection, but perhaps if our crowded trains and buses could bo as well ventilated as our air- conditioned cinemas there would. bo a useful reduction in the num ber of colds, t
Air conditioning remains. M Juxury, although ventilation a possible for all: What we really
(Continued on Page 8.):
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