EXTRACT XXI. 



ON WHAT IS A "COLD"? 



THE disease or pathological condition called a " cold," 1 

 "catching a cold," etc., is a clinical entity known popularly 

 all over the world, but which has not received, we think, 

 that critical notice from the profession to which its import- 

 ance entitles it on its own account, if not on account of 

 the part it plays the very large and important part in 

 the causation of disease generally. 



Adopting the name "cold," by which it is popularly 

 known, in lieu of one based on a clear knowledge of its 

 true scientific meaning and apprehension, and proceeding 

 to analyse its pathological elements in the light of the 

 views we have advanced in relation to "nervine circu- 

 lation," etc., we shall try to make clear a subject which 

 literally has been in everyone's mouth for, it may be, 

 centuries, and which still passes current in our everyday 

 literature and our daily converse. 



To begin with the simplest example of what is called 

 a "cold," or "catching a cold," let us choose the following 

 as representing its most ephemeral and passing form or 

 variety for it can be studied and felt in endless grades 

 of intensity and duration and let us follow the sequence 

 of events, one by one, in order to, or until we, grasp the 

 meaning of the united whole or pathological entity. 



Thus, a man, during the course or process of sleep, 

 exposes a portion of his person, or has occasion to get 

 out of bed, when a portion of his cutaneous surface 

 becomes exposed to a draught. On awaking in the former 



