ANDREWES 



way we did the experiment it didn't show anything, but we are 

 not willing to say that there isn't a relation. We failed to achieve 

 it, and we hope other people will find a way they can do it; then 

 we will believe them. We are not biased about the whole thing. 



NUNGESTER: A few years ago, we got to playing with this 

 sort of thing. In the process of taking nasal washings, we took 

 just a little bit of a history of the people from whom we took 

 the nasal washings, if they had a cold. These are students, of 

 course; they like to brag on how hard they have been working, 

 so you have to discount this a bit, but it seems that there was 

 almost a pretty good correlation between loss of sleep and the 

 incidence of a common cold. There seems to be more of a cor- 

 relation with this sort of fatigue and stress than there was with 

 exposure to cold. Have you had any experience with fatigue? 

 Of course, you have told us that you brought the fatigue ele- 

 ment in. 



ANDREWES: Yes, also the opposite effect; if people go away 

 for a summer holiday and come back feeling absolutely on top 

 of the world, they're likely to get a cold almost at once, 



SCHMIDT: In connection with humidity and its possible effect, 

 it occurred to us, during our studies here in Alaska, that it might 

 be involved. Humidity is very low during the winter months in 

 Central Alaska, to the extent that you waken with a very dry and 

 crusty throat. It is hard to imagine that one wouldn't be most 

 susceptible to any sort of respiratory illness under these con- 

 ditions. When Dr. Beard, of the Armed Forces Epidemiological 

 Board (at that time, at least) was here, I discussed this as- 

 pect with him and he indicated that he had considered this to be 

 a factor some years ago. He investigated this by working in a 

 desert area where it was warm but very dry, and he didn't ob- 

 serve a higher incidence of infection in his subjects. Although 

 our attempts were rather clumsy and humble, no relationship 

 could be established between the relative humidity and upper 

 respiratory infection. Even though you are extremely uncomfor- 

 table, you seem to survive very nicely. 



ANDREWES: Of course, under those desert conditions is the 



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