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inflammation or the cold. We may also be told that improper clothing 

 plays an important part; that we either bundle up too much or that we 

 do not dress warmly enough. Some persons account for their colds by the 

 underwear used, both as regards material and texture. 



Now, it is well known that individuals who in town are subject to 

 colds will be free from them on going to the wild woods. The experience 

 of hunters far away from civilization is of interest in this connection; 

 they will undergo all sorts of hardships and exposures, get wet and cold, 

 leave their little cabin with its red hot stove and step out into the cold 

 winter air and back again, and yet they do not take cold. 



Taking it all in all, it would seem that we will have to look elsewhere 

 than to exposure to physical cold for the production of the affection we 

 know as a "cold." It is not to be denied that we do take colds after an 

 exposure, as we all know from experience, but there must be some other 

 factor involved. Indeed, long ago that patient scientist and philosopher, 

 Benjamin Franklin, arrived at this conclusion. In his autobiography are 

 recorded a number of observations that he made on colds, and he came to 

 the conclusion that simple exposure to cold was not a sufficient cause. 

 What this something, this unknown factor, is he did not know— in fact we 

 are just beginning to find out. I am almost inclined to believe that if 

 Ben Franklin had been a physician or had had the education of a physi- 

 cian we would have known long ago. 



Now, we have been using the term "a cold" without any real definition 

 of its meeting; we assumed that everybody knows what a cold is, but as a 

 matter of fact there is a whole list of words used by the laity in a loose 

 way which all stand for the same thing. A cough or a running nose, 

 headache, sore throat, catarrhal affections, tonsilitis, stiff neck, pleurisy, 

 rheumatism, neuralgia, lumbago, gout, fever, malaria, inflammation or 

 soreness of the kidneys and so forth, are either synonyms for a cold or 

 are said to be due to cold or that a cold has settled in some particular part 

 of the body. 



For instance, the significance or meaning of the term malaria as ordi- 

 narily used may at first sight seem obscure, but it is very frequently used 

 in those cases of "cold" where there is considerable fever and perhaps 

 some chills. As a matter of fact, real malarial fever is a comparatively 

 rare disease and is practically absent during the winter months. It can 

 be definitely diagnosed by an examination of the blood, and cases usually 

 require active medication, that is, the use of some antiperiodic like 



