69 



yet explorers tell us tbnt -'colds" are practically unkuown in the far north 

 —there must need be some other explanation. 



Our domestic animals Avith an anatomy and physiology closely re- 

 sembling our own are not suljject, at least to any extent, to diseases of 

 the respiratory tract or to colds. 



If our State is unhealthy, I believe we must look elsewhere than to the 

 climate to account for the prevalence of respiratory diseases, and espec- 

 ially colds. The old pioneers and the farmers at the present time living 

 in thinly-settled districts do not complain of the climate; they have been 

 and are healthy. 



Tlie use of natural gas and overheated rooms is a fruitful cause of 

 colds, we are told. Fires burn day and night and dry out the atmos- 

 phere, and this causes the respiratory mucous membranes to become dry 

 and intiamed. This sounds reasonable, but, we may ask, why do not the 

 inhabitants of dry, arid plains or deserts— with an exceedingly hot and dry 

 atmosphere, exceeding that of our rooms— why do they not suffer from 

 inflammations and colds? The Bedouins are said to have such delicate or 

 sensitive mucous membranes that they can not bear the odor of a city; 

 however, at times of windstorms they get nose and throat full of sand and 

 dust and yet they are none the worse the day after. 



Physicists tell us that the amount of moisture the air is capable of 

 holding depends on its temperature; the higher the temperature the more 

 moisture it can hold. A very cold air may be a very dry air which may 

 take up considerable moisture on coming in contact Avith the respiratory 

 membranes— yet it is known that in an otherwise pure atmosphere no 

 harm results. On the other hand, a hot, dry desert atmosphere may take 

 up considerable moisture from these membranes, and this is readily sup- 

 plied as long as the body contains sufficient fluid or where there is no ex- 

 cessive thirst. We see practically the same conditions in an iron 

 foundry or rolling mill. In this excessively hot atmosphere the respira- 

 tory membranes of the men may suffer very little because they give off 

 the fluid so freely supplied the body as drink. Membranes keep them- 

 selves moist in a dry atmosphere just as the skin keeps itself moist. As 

 a matter of fact, the amount of moisture or the dryness of the air has 

 nothing to do with the production of colds— other things being equal. 



A variation of this hot-air and dry-room theory is that it is necessary 

 to come in contact with the outer raw air before inflammation results; 

 that this first brings on a congestion and tliis in turn is followed l)v the 



