I'jgi. on coug/js and colas. 117 



fected air they have breathed for so long a time in 

 these places ? 



9th. Some have fancied colds to be owing to the 

 pores being suddenly fhut up. Yet we rarely catch 

 cold when we rise from our beds, although a transi- 

 tion from a warm bed, to the half naked state we are 

 in while we drefs, must certainly fhut up all our 

 pores. A Rufsian cure for the cold is said to be 

 first stewing in a steam bath, and then rolling 

 among snow. Our pores serve as discharging vef- 

 sels or emunctuaries to the body. Perhaps anato- 

 mists may discover, if it has not been already dis- 

 covered, that our pores are provided, like our veins 

 and arteries, with valves to prevent any retrograde 

 flux of humours back again into the human body. 

 If this {hould prove to be the case, it would be as 

 absurd to suppose we could imbibe contagion by the 

 pores, as to suppose the water of a riA'er could be 

 poisoned at its mouth, instead of its source. 



loth. It is known that the human body is provided 

 with absorbent vefsels, the purpose of which is to im- 

 bibe air and nourilhment into the animal system. 

 Along with air, may not these vefsels also imbibe 

 any contagious vapours with which the air chances 

 to be loaded? And is not this opinion confirmed by 

 our being much more apt to catch cold, if we go 

 abroad fasting, than after making a hearty break- 

 fast ? 



nth. It is observed that moist weather is more 

 apt to give colds, than dry frosty weather, though 

 colder. Does not this amount to an absolute proof, 

 of the infectious nature of the disease ? because moist 



