Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 July 1884 — Taking Cold. [ARTICLE]

Taking Cold.

There is an old saying, “When the air comes through a hole, say your prayers to save your soul;” and I should think almost any one could get a cold with a “spoonful of water, or the wrist held to a key-hole.” Singular as it may seem, sudden warming when cold is more dangerous than the reverse; every one has noticed how soon the handkerchief is required on entering a heated room on a cold day. Frost-bite is an extreme illustration of this. As the Irishman said, on picking himself up, it was not the fall, but stopping so quickly that hurt him. It is not the lowering of the temperature to the freezing point, but its subsequent elevation, that devitalizes the tissue. This is why rubbing with snow or bathing in cold water is required to restore safely a frozen part; the arrested circulation must be gradually re-estab-lished, or inflammation, perhaps mortification, ensues. General precautions against taking cold are almost self-evident in this light. There is ordinarily little, if any, danger to be apprehended from wet olothes, so long as exercise is kept up, for the “glow” about compensates for the extra cooling by evaporation. Nor is a complete drenching more likely to be injurious than wetting of one part. But never sit still wet, and, in changing, rub the body dry. There is a general tendency, springing from fatigue, imfolence, or indifference, to neglect damp feet; that is to say, to dry them by the fire; but this process is tedious and Uncertain. I would say especially, off with the muddy boots and sodden socks at once—dry stockings after a hunt may .make just the d ffereoce of .your be.ng able to go on again or never. Take care never to check perspiration ; during this process the body is in a somewh .t critical condition, and a sudden arrest of the function may result disastrously—evqn fatally. Cue part of the business of perspiration is to e ualize bodily temperature, and it must not be interfered with. The

secret of much that is to be said about bathing, when heated, lies here. A person overheated, panting it may be, with throbbing temples and a dry skin, is in danger, partly because the natural cooling by evaporation from skin is denied, and the condition is sometimes not far from a “sunstroke.” Under these circumstances a person of fairly good constitution may plunge into the water with impunity—even with benefit. But if the body be already cooling by sweating, rapid abstraction of heat, from the surface may cause internal congestion, never unattended with danger.— Cones’ Field Ornithology.