Catchi7ig cold : what is it ? For example;
one comes in warm from exercise on a spring
or autumn day, takes off his coat, and sits
down near a window to * ' cool off. ' ' His
skin is relaxed and moist with perspiration,
whose evaporation, under the window-breeze,
goes on rapidly. Suppose the breeze to blow
on his back, between his shoulders. That
part is cooled more than the rest of his
THE FAMIL Y DOCTOR
body. Its blood-vessels and skin -pores con-
tract under the cooling process, detaining
the perspiration and driving the blood in-
ward from the surface. Some of the waste
matter which the skin would have thrown
off by sweating, but for this chilling, is now
kept in the blood.
The result may be made more serious
than a mere cold. If there be a weak or
susceptible part within the chest (bronchial
tubes, lungs, pleura, or heart) it suffers
from overloading with blood and waste
material ; and we have a broiicliitis, a pjieic-
moiiia, a pleurisy, or an inflaimnaiion of the
heart. Among these, the first is the most
frequent, and the last the least so ; but even
it does sometimes happen, especially in a
rheumatic person.
Digestive Morbid Causes.
Excess of food may cause indigestion at
the time; and, if often repeated, habitual
indigestion — called dyspepsia. A less amount
of excess or superfluity may bring on an
overfulness of rich blood in the system —
plethora . Deficiency of food weakens, and so
promotes attacks of many disorders ; varying
according to constitution and exposure.
Indigestible articles may produce com-
mon indigestion, with windy pain in the
stomach, nausea, etc. ; or cholera viorbics,
which is much more severe ; occasionally
dangerous.
Obstructive Causes.
Everything that interferes with the clear-
ing out from tlie body of all waste and dead
material, by the excretions, tends to injure
health. Breathing foul air, makes the blood
impure, and promotes diseases of various
kinds. Uncleanliness of the skin acts in
the same way to a less certain and serious
degree. Neglect of the bowels leads to cos-
tiveness, headache, and dyspepsia ; now and
then it brings on hernia (rupture) which
may endanger life, or an obstruction of the
bowels within the abdomen, from which not
many who suffer it recover.
Contagion.
This is, strictly defined, conveyance of
disease by touch or contact. But some
(not all) disorders, which may be trans-
mitted by actual touch, pass also to a short
distance through the air. This is true of
typhus, small-pox, chicken-pox, measles,
scarlet fever, mumps, and whooping-cough,
certainly ; perhaps, in rare instances, of
diphtheria. Hydrophobia, syphilis, and
gonorrhoea are conveyed only by contact
and inoculation ; that is, introduction of the
virus of the disease into the blood, or, at
least, under the skin. These diseases, are,
in fact, the common diseases that are cer-
tainly contagious.
Infection : Atmospheric Causation.
Page 124
Presented as published in 1901. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Catching cold : what is it ? For example; one comes in warm from exercise on a spring or autumn day, takes off his coat, and sits down near a window to * ' cool off. ' ' His skin is relaxed and moist with perspiration, whose evaporation, under the window-breeze, goes on rapidly. Suppose the breeze to blow on his back, between his shoulders. That part is cooled more than the rest of his
body. Its blood-vessels and skin -pores contract under the cooling process, detaining the perspiration and driving the blood inward from the surface. Some of the waste matter which the skin would have thrown off by sweating, but for this chilling, is now kept in the blood.
The result may be made more serious than a mere cold. If there be a weak or susceptible part within the chest (bronchial tubes, lungs, pleura, or heart) it suffers from overloading with blood and waste material ; and we have a bronchitis, a pneumonia, a pleurisy, or an inflammation of the heart. Among these, the first is the most frequent, and the last the least so ; but even it does sometimes happen, especially in a rheumatic person.
Digestive Morbid Causes.
Excess of food may cause indigestion at the time; and, if often repeated, habitual indigestion — called dyspepsia. A less amount of excess or superfluity may bring on an overfulness of rich blood in the system — plethora . Deficiency of food weakens, and so promotes attacks of many disorders ; varying according to constitution and exposure.
Indigestible articles may produce common indigestion, with windy pain in the stomach, nausea, etc. ; or cholera viorbics, which is much more severe ; occasionally dangerous.
Obstructive Causes.
Everything that interferes with the clearing out from tlie body of all waste and dead material, by the excretions, tends to injure health. Breathing foul air, makes the blood impure, and promotes diseases of various kinds. Uncleanliness of the skin acts in the same way to a less certain and serious degree. Neglect of the bowels leads to costiveness, headache, and dyspepsia ; now and then it brings on hernia (rupture) which may endanger life, or an obstruction of the bowels within the abdomen, from which not many who suffer it recover.
Contagion.
This is, strictly defined, conveyance of disease by touch or contact. But some (not all) disorders, which may be trans-
mitted by actual touch, pass also to a short distance through the air. This is true of typhus, small-pox, chicken-pox, measles, scarlet fever, mumps, and whooping-cough, certainly ; perhaps, in rare instances, of diphtheria. Hydrophobia, syphilis, and gonorrhoea are conveyed only by contact and inoculation ; that is, introduction of the virus of the disease into the blood, or, at least, under the skin. These diseases, are, in fact, the common diseases that are certainly contagious.
Infection : Atmospheric Causation.