1938-10-25 — Page 6

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The

Hongkong Telegraph.

TUESDAY, October 25, 1938.

The VERY COMMON COLD

66

‘A

TISHOO, atishoo!" The gentleman in the corner of the bus sneezes vigorously and mutters, half apologetically, "I think I must have caught ja cold."

Twelve hours later his alream-

ing eyes and nose leave him in

By Professor

M. Low

A.

no doubt, and three days later, hour, and others again who

If, for just one week, every person suffering from a cold was isolated, and had no opportunity of spreading the infection fellow travellers and fellow

mendous reduction in the num-

quent six months.

000,000,

in eight or even 24 hours.

Vaccine Treatment

than cure.

will prove

of immense value. The literature on the search during the last few years is staggering.

the

Mice, ferrets, and even hedgehog have been recruited. Thousands of people have been examined for statistics. Hun- dreds have volunteered for inoculation.

But one must come down to

There seems little doubt that the hard fact that no one can

sum now

But

half the people who had been swear by sweating the cold out a degree of immunity or resist- sitting within ten feet of him by violent exercise or drowning ance can be built up, but how to thing responsible for the com- say for certain, "This is the If you are going home on leave, have no doubt either that it was it in whisky.

build it up certainly remains a this must interest you.

indeed a cold that he lind.

mon cold." They may truthfully have mystery. They begin to sneeze and been cured, but since the cures.

There is no need to be pessi- You can arrange to stop ashore cough themselves, and travelling work with only a fraction of one

mistic. The announcement. may at homo and drive away in your to work in crowded trains and per cent, of the sufferers they Recently a doctor working in have proved equally baffling and Kissing Is Dangerous come to-morrow. Other germs own Vauxhall.

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 couples are not liable to catch the microscope, at last. We assist you in this connection without any trouble or complica. the descendants of a single pair cures in the accepted sense. colds to the same extent as other Probably if one tenth of the tion to yourself .delivered of rats may number 35,000 in

Your doctor cannot do more people. twelve months and that the cost for you if you catch a cold than to you at home and subsequently to the nation of feeding each rat advise you to go to bed, take excitement builds up the resist- should have the answer within loat through colds His explanation is that the were given for research we in Hongkong.

is ten shillings a week.

aspirin, keep warm and drink ance of the body to the attack a short time. Colda multiply in the same 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 loat work- ing time, inefficiency and subse- simply runs its normal course which may, or may not, be true. provided by individuals. Sir without any of the many possible Unfortunately, remaining en- Henry Royce, the great motor mentines workouts per cold, 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. Why not a National Cold Week? Can Rive to make you fit again therefore, be short-lived. It effect of colts upon workers in might be pointed out that kiss his factories, left one tenth of ing is an obvious danger, and his fortune for medical research that even among engaged people largely directed towards the common cold. The Rockefeller to THESE are the facts should be strictly confined to

about the curing of themselves!

Institute has spent many thou- workers, there might be a tre- colds. What about prevention? Theoretically, the healthiest ands of pounds.

Most diseases have been "mas people should be the most im- The "Peak" Period ber of colds during the subse- tered" by prevention rather mune from

colds, but if we accept the ordinary definition of

these are necessarily Large tracts of tropical land healthiness this is not true, small sums compared with what Science Is Baffled

have been made habitable for Athletes are just as susceptible paring to blow other people to we spend, for instance, in pre- I shall probably be told that the white man, not because our to colls as other people. THE FIERY DEATH

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 build- treatment of malaria is much Various diets are said to build pieces. The cost of conquering the common cold might prove to OF CANTON

sum of money in lost working how to prevent catching it. If certain, from experiments con- ing a single batticship, which hours. Few people realise that Canton, proud capital of the every year colds cost us a sura bite you, you can't catch malaria, tional doses of vitamins do give while colds will still be with us. you don't let a female mosquito ducted not long ago, that addi- will be obsolete in ten years, Cantonese for centuries, is burn-variously estimated at figures Smallpox, 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

diphtheria, and

a certain resistance, but there is It seems to me that the collec- most poignant disaster

quered by immunisation.

munisation doctors can confer content some people rather than China has suffered since the And this is only the direct Why cannot we apply the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese has stated that half the disabling answer is, first, that colds are lysed, it seems to boil down to

cost, One eminent medical man

against diphtheria. same principles to colds? The

attempt to discover the cause of When all the figures are ana- colds which might lead to a cure. hostilities. The fiery holocaust diseases have their origins in probably caused not by a single the statement, "It works with facts that have been discovered

Nevertheless, some which has been rapidly devour-colds, and if this is the

of the case, type of germ, but by a mixture ing the city for the past three then the ultimate cost every of many, so that immunisation some people,”

are of great interest. For in- days has been likened to the year is at least double the figures is bound to be difficult, and,

stance, in Britain colds break Tracking Down The secondly, that in any, case the

out most frequently after the which presaged Napoleon's re- The common cold, which Sir immunisation is short-lived.

Germ

end of the holiday season. The But the Kingsley Wood when Minister of If you have had measles you similarity is in dimensions of Number One," is a disease that are immunised for life. But, as mystery, and the solution

THE cause of the com- general interpretation is that the Health called "Public Enemy will seldom get it again-you

mon cold remains a changeableness of the weather the blaze, rather than in its

of in September is responsible, has 30 far bulled Moscow was not set science,

medical we all know, you can catch one this mystery should show the It may be that our holiday in way both to practicable preven- fresh air has actually reduced 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 cording to historians, the result score of other deadly diseases intended to give immunity, cure.

acquire through continued mild have been conquered, but if They may be injected, or in cer-

A tremendous amount of infection. doctors are frank they must tain cases taken by the mouth, research has been directed in There is another "peak" admit that they do not know but the success they achieve recent years towards catching period after Christmas, perhaps what causes a cold, how to cure seems to vary very widely. the little germ, so small that it due to leasened resistance

I have known a few people passes the finest filter, that is through over-indulgence. cold or how to prevent from catching cold.

who have completely shaken responsible.

"peak perioda" in other coun-- There has been a great deal of themselves free of the danger of

Actually it seems probable tries with roughly the deal more of sheer guesswork. solid research work, a very great colds by injections. There are that many germs, working climate are different. In the others who do not get the desired singly and in combination are U.S.A. they are roughly a month Far greater progress has been immunity.

responsible. They may be made in the fight against cancer Two years ago the Rockefeller related to influenza, or they may Attempts have been made to Who precisely is to blame (if than against the cold, and if the Foundation carried out experi- simply pave the way for the explain peaks in terms of sudden 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. direction of the prevailing wind, fullest sense) for Canton's rag-out real hopes of a cure in many iated with the inactivated virus When I say it is all guess- of the prevalence of thunder and ing inferno, it is impossible at

Much of of colds or influenza.

work, I am not auggesting that even of wireless. this moment to say. Theories Not so with the common cold. The results varied enormously, a vast amount of valuable work this is very interesting but, one there are in abundance, but for There is an apocryphat but illu- but the report contained one has not been done.

must admit, guesswork. sentence: "What the present the only facta known minating story of a millionaire significant

We are groping in the dark On the contrary, the research 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 tions, which have sprung up in an eminent physician. "I've that the vaccination did not Harris, Dr. David Thomson, Dr. that every object we touch is the a dozen different parts of the got to get well quickly," he said. giye protection in all cases, oven A. R. Dochez and Sir Patrick missing key.

"What treatment can you give when it had a good chance." Laidlaw, to mention only a few, me?" The physician described

the

burning of Moscow in 1812, quoted.

treat from Russia.

causes.

of sheer carelessness on the part

of its own inhabitants. It was neither a defiant gesture by the cowed Roztopchin, nor a wilful act of incendiarism by Napo- leon. The Canton fire has been created by deep-rooted causes and motivated by a frustrated bitterness, which makes all the

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city, have as their origin a 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." blaze ever deliberately attempt- "And if I just let the cold run ed. Huge areas are being laid its course, when can I expect to waste as this is written, and be well?" "In a fortnight,"

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 thing approaching a precise

years ago. 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

PIPE

50

known-London, Chicago, Moa-have achieved the same end by cow, and now Canton, all oc-drinking a pint of water every curred during the autumn-

months of either September of Great Fire of Canton-a story

NO INNER BUHING WHATSOEVER October. In fact, for those who which has yet to be written in

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cold after another.

are eager to seek coincidences, full. Though there are sicken- it is worth reminding that, two ing features about the cataa- days before the outbreak of the trophe, yet these are not as Canton fire, it was the 67th an- fearful 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-i formed the theme for the film suit of the conflagrations. And "In Old Chiengo" shown recent behind one's reactions to it all ly In Hongkong.

lics a feeling that it is the work But these facts and coin-of Chinese patriots who refused 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.

GRIN AND BEAR IT

later.

The

same

Reducing The Risk

AND so we are thrown. By Lichty of what we can do to minimise back on the question

"You don't know how well of you are being a doctor's wiir, I can't complain of a thing."

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 is that the germs are passed from one person to an- other, probably in minute parti- cles of moisture that can remain. suspended in the air for long periods.

If we 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 air conditioning greatly reduces the chances of infection. In: other words, in ideal conditions of ventilation there is less risk of infection.

It is usual to blame cinemas and theatres for spreading in-... fection, but perhaps if our crowded trains and buses could be as well ventilated as our air- conditioned cinemias there would be a useful reduction in the num→ ber of colds.

Air conditioning remains luxury, although ventilation in: possible for all: What we really. (Continued on Page 5.)