COLD AND COLDS 



SULKIN: You mentioned that to limit the occurrence of the 

 common cold through classical immunization might present a 

 difficult problem because of the growing number of serologic 

 types. I wonder, in your opinion, if it is conceivable that a new 

 type of immunization procedure might be evolved through the 

 mechanism of interference. That is to say, since inactive viral 

 particles will produce interferon, is it conceivable ?hat by in- 

 troduction of say, influenza virus into the external nares, that 

 one might manufacture sufficient interferon to cope with any 

 one of these common cold viruses? 



ANDREWES: We have actually tried that and it didn't come 

 off, but we don't despair of an approach on that line. Issacs 

 found that the production of interferon is not only mediated by 

 virus approach; he thinks it is fundamentally a reaction to any 

 foreign nucleo- protein approach, and it is possible to produce 

 some interferon with nucleo- protein approaches of non-viral 

 origin. One man made an interesting suggestion which we haven't 

 followed up; that is, that the low incidence of colds in the sum- 

 mer might be due to the fact that in the summer, people are 

 constantly being stimulated with nucleo- protein produced from 

 pollen. 



NUNGESTER: I hate to agree with Dr. Blair and sell Joe Berry's 

 long underwear short here, and I wonder if you believe that ex- 

 periments with humans where there is more or less uniform 

 cooling are characteristically comparable to the sort of things 

 that you have done at Salisbury, In keeping with the work of 

 Mudgrant and Goldman,^ it isn't the uniform cooling of the whole 

 body that is important, but the irregular coolir^ of parts of the 

 body that is important. 



WALKER: And I would add, to the right temperature. 



NUNGESTER: Yes. 



ANDREWES: Our feeling about this effect of cold is that the 



2 Annals of Otology, Rhinology, and Laryngology. 30: 1. 1921. 



313 



