CATCHING COLD. 369 



attributed to the influence of an " influenza-wave " ; but this theory 

 seems to me utterly untenable, else a still larger proportion would be 

 thus affected, and the disease would, in general, be confined to such 

 periods ; whereas very many escape at such times, only, alas ! to fall 

 victims to the disorder during the finest season of the year, when the 

 weather is the mildest and most charming and the temperature most 

 uniform. Indeed, some of the severest " attacks " are observed at 

 such times, and the disease is far more prevalent during a season of 

 steady hot weather in summer than during a period of steady cold 

 weather in winter ! But it is during a warm spell in midwinter, after 

 the world has for quite a period of intense cold been confined within- 

 doors, that " everybody has a cold " ! 



4. While the disease under consideration is no respecter of persons, 

 but is as universal as the dietetic habits of the people are uniform, 

 there is one class, viz., vegetarians, who are very much less subject to 

 it, often passing the entire year without an attack, or, if attacked, are 

 less seriously affected, and recover more speedily than others about 

 them. Individuals, indeed, there are, living still more abstemiously, 

 and paying proper regard to the ventilation of their dwellings, who 

 fitver have a cold, though half the town may be sick with the disease : 

 the " wave " never touches even the hem of their garments. 



5. Members of this class, however, upon resuming their former 

 practices as to diet, returning to the " mixed " diet and three meals a 

 day, also resume the habit of " catching cold " ; indeed, a visit of a few 

 weeks, in a family of " good livers," especially if the latter are " air- 

 haters " also, will often produce an attack. 



Personally, though a life-long sufferer from the disease in various 

 forms, from the " snuffles " of infancy to the " hay-fever " of adult 

 age, together with occasional attacks of neuralgia, rheumatism, throat 

 and lung affections, etc., I now find it impossible to excite any of the 

 " well-known symptoms," or, in fact, any form of disease, though sub- 

 jecting myself to what many would consider the most suicidal prac- 

 tices in the matter of exposure to the elements, so long as I live upon 

 a frugal diet, chiefly cereals and fruit, served plainly nominally two 

 meals a day ; holding myself ready, however, to " skip " a meal when 

 necessary, i. e., whenever any of the symptoms of indigestion, as acid 

 stomach, flatulence, pressure in the region of the lungs or stomach, etc., 

 warn me of having carried the pleasures of the table a trifle beyond 

 the needs of the organism. 



I have, in my efforts to " catch " cold, submitted myself to ex- 

 posures that to the minds of most 'people would appear of a suicidal! 

 character, wearing low shoes and walking in snow and slop until* both 

 socks and shoes were saturated, sitting an hour in that condition and 

 going to bed without warming my feet ; removing flannel under-gar- 

 ments in midwinter on the approach of colder weather, and attending 

 to out-door affairs without the overcoat habitually worn ; sleeping witb 

 tol. xxiv. 24 



