Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1920 — Late Experiments Upset Old Theory That Chilling of the Body Is the Cause of Colds [ARTICLE]

Late Experiments Upset Old Theory That Chilling of the Body Is the Cause of Colds

The question of how we catch cold even now awaits final judgment. The common cold —be it one disease or several —is now regarded as an infection, and colds from infected persons are surely known, but there are still victims who trace their troubles to wet feet, or sitting in a draft. An inference has been that the disease bacteria may rest inert on the mucous membrane of the throat until stirred to action by the chilling of the body. A familiar explanation is that chilling ofthe skin drives the blood to the internal organs, and by congestion lessens their resistance, but the late St. Louis experiments of S. Mudd and S. B. Grant have shown that there is no such congestion. The temperature of the skin and mucous membranes actually falls with chilling of distant parts of the body surface and rises again when the person is warmed externally. .The Investigators conclude that interruption of the circulation may bring infection by upsetting the equilibrium between host and micro-organisms in such a way as. decreasing the respiration of the crfls, retarding waste removal, or lessening the local supply of the antibodies of immunity.