134 THE INVISIBLE WORLD 



From such, facts up-to-date thinkers realize and 

 know that colds are infectious; they are com- 

 municated from one person to another. 



This being the case, the cold is always caused by 

 a germ. The germ, and the germ only, renders the 

 cold infectious. The germ, and the germ only, is 

 communicated. At least, if anything else that is 

 lifeless is communicated, it cannot produce disease. 

 A speck of dust, or a speck of sputum, in itself alone, 

 communicated from one person to another, can do 

 no harm. It is dead, and cannot multiply. But a 

 living germ, passing from one to another, may grow, 

 multiply and become millions in the second person. 

 This poison, according to its nature, produces the 

 cold, or any other disease. Sparks fly from one 

 burning building to a second ; from the second to a 

 third ; from the third to others. A conflagration is 

 the result. Germs pass from one person to a sec- 

 ond ; from the second to a third ; from the third to 

 others. An epidemic is the result. 



Other means may prepare the way for a cold 

 sitting or standing in a current of air, a sudden 

 chill, undue exposure to wet and cold. But such, 

 things only cultivate the soil. The germs must yet 

 be planted in the soil before the cold springs up. 



Three kinds of colds. It may be, at times, three 

 stages of the same cold. The first plays the game 

 of simple secretions from the nose and throat. The 

 second adds soreness of the throat. The third adds 

 a cough. 



Each kind of cold is due to its own kind of mi- 



