i89o 
495 
THH RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
it. Directions for giving hot sitz and foot baths are found 
in any standard work on water-cure. But it is fatiguing 
work to give hot baths and, now that I am growing old, I 
use them only when lung fever, croup or diphtheria 
threatens. A small, thin pocket handkerchief wrung out 
of cola water, so as not to drip, and laid on throat and 
chest, usually breaks up spasmodic—not membranous— 
croup, in five minutes or less. (MRS.) elsxe s. Lincoln. 
What Is a “Cold” Anyway? 
In the treatment of a disease, its cause and probable or 
certain effects on the system are first studied and ascer¬ 
tained. These are termed the diagnosis and prognosis of 
the complaint. When these are clearly understood, the 
mode of treatment becomes a rational deduction from the 
nature of the disorder and the effects of certain remedial 
medicines or processes. 
Now a cold as it is termed, is really a fever, that is, a 
disease in which the temperature of the blood and the 
body is raised to an abnormal degree. A cold is caught by 
undue exposure to cold when the body is heated. A man 
working in the hay-field gets intensely warmed t.y the 
exercise and beat of the weather. To get rid of the heat, 
the system by a rational process of recovery from abnormal 
conditions, throws off a large quantity of moisture in the 
form of vapor, as well as direct exudation from the skin, 
through the innumerable pores. The loss of this moisture 
dries the blood, so to speak; that is, it reduces the quantity 
of water in it, and thirst follows the perspiration. Then 
one drinks water, too often very cold, which is exceed¬ 
ingly dangerous, because the water almost immediately, 
is absorbed into the blood and reduces the temperature of 
it to an injurious, and sometimes fatal extent. But, any¬ 
how, the person drinks (warm tea is the safest drink for a 
person in this condition)' and the blood is replenished with 
moisture and thirst is allayed. But the heat continues 
and causes renewed perspiration from the skin, which 
carries it off without danger. In 
time, and by a cessation of labor 
aud by encouraging perspiration, 
the system is gradually cooled off 
without ill effects. But the un¬ 
wise person throws off his clothes, 
removes his hat, and throws him¬ 
self upon the cool grass in the 
shade of a tree and enjoys (?) the 
cooling breeze. Alas ! he is court¬ 
ing a siren in the breeze which may 
lure him to death. The cool breeze 
checks the perspiration, closes the 
open pores, and prevents the escape 
of the internal heat. A sudden 
chill runs through the veins, and 
unless the perspiration is quickly 
renewed, the person catches cold, 
the blood retains the heat, and in¬ 
stead of the cooling perspiration, 
the closed skin becomes “ burning 
hot,” and what is known as a state 
of fever (from the Latin word fer- 
vere, to be hot) ensues. The per¬ 
son has caught cold. The head is 
hot and the eyes and nostrils are 
congested; the whole body feels 
sore; the brain suffers from the 
congestion and the head aches. 
What shall he do to be saved 
from the consequences of his in¬ 
discretion which may be serious ? 
I once visited a friend, a well 
known farmer, busy with his hay. 
He sat in his shirt sleeves on the 
fence to cool off. The sea breeze 
blew in from Long Island Sound 
and he said : “ How pleasant is 
this sea breeze 1 ” I entreated him to put on his coat 
and cool off slowly lest he might take cold. A strong 
man, he laughed at the suggested precaution; but with¬ 
in an hour he was shivering from head to foot and be¬ 
fore midnight was delirious with fever which became 
typhoid and kept him three months in his bed aud at 
death’s door for weeks. Had he taken the right pre¬ 
cautions he might have got off with a “cold” lasting a 
few days. In case of such an imprudence the first thing to 
be done is to restore the action of the skin aud produce 
perspiration. In most cases the patient should take a hot 
bath at once, or at least a hip bath, in water as hot as he 
can bear. Then he should wrap himself in hot blankets 
and cause more to be piled on him and drink copiously of 
warm drinks—tea, gruel or hot wine, or even brandy or 
whisky [?Eds.] and hot water. When perspiration breaks 
out, he is safe from serious results, but care is still needed 
to avoid a recurrence of the fever. If medicine is admin¬ 
istered I believe quinine to be the most effective. It is 
always my own remedy when suffering from a cold, and 
such a dose of it—at least two grains—is taken as will 
affect the system favorably. As to the questions proposed, 
I would first say that a cold is more easily prevented than 
cured. To prevent it a person should never expose himself 
when heated, even under ordinary circumstances, to any 
chilling effect of cold air, or, worse, to a cold breeze. One 
should never cool off in a cellar as I have known persons 
to do. When cooling off, the coat should be put on and 
the perspiration, which is Nature’s. means of cooling, 
be encouraged until the internal heat has been got rid of 
slowly. 
Colds are very frequently taken in the evening by sitting 
out-of-doors on a piazza enjoying the cool breeze. What 
is called “malaria” is more often thus produced—and 
chills aud fever follow—than is generally thought. The 
system is brought into such a receptive condition to the 
germs of this disease, which rise from the soil in the cool 
evening, that they take immediate effect and infect the 
blood, when otherwise they would be harmless. One 
should put on clothing, thrown off when at work, the 
moment he rests or begins to cool off. 
Now, to sum up, first, when a cold is taken, and a slight 
shiver is felt, the patient should at once proceed to get 
warm and restore the perspiration. A hot drink, a two- 
grain pill of quinine having been taken, he should go to 
bed and cover himself warmly. A hot foot bath will be 
useful, and he may wake in the morning after a healthful 
sleep quite free from pain or distress. If not, he should 
stay in-doors and keep warm and quiet and avoid drafts, 
pud drink warm tea or gruel, and nurse himqglf patiently 
until he is recovered from all headache, congestion of the 
nostrils, and pain of the muscles. 
2. The above treatment will in most cases remove all 
symptoms in 24 hours: if not, the services of a physician 
should be sought at once and his advice be followed im¬ 
plicitly. It is always better to employ a doctor than an 
undertaker. 
3. A cold must necessarily run its course, by which is 
meant that the excess of heat must be got rid of and the 
normal temperature be restored. Sometimes a cold sponge 
bath at a temperature of 60 degrees, with brisk rubbing of 
the whole body with a hair glove or a woolen cloth, will 
restore the action of the skin and reduce the incipient 
fever. But I am more in fdvor of the hot bath, as near the 
Turkish bath as possible, which is simulated by tne wrap¬ 
ping in warm blankets and the warm drinks; and an ounce 
of Epsom salts will afford much help by stimulating the 
bowels and kidneys to get rid of the increased wastes of 
the system caused by the “ cold ” and consequent fever. 
4. The remedies suggested act by dissipating the exces¬ 
sive vital heat through the skin and restoring the normal 
action of the system. Quinine or Epsom salts act as re¬ 
frigerants as well as antiseptics and thus are useful in both 
ways indicated. henry stewart, m. d. 
AS . 
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DORSET HORNED RAM COLONEL. Fig. 192. 
fKe-engraved from the Mark Lane Express.] 
Sanitarium Treatment of Colds. 
It is quite a common saying that pure water is one of 
the things that mankind could least easily do without. 
The statement is not usually intended to apply to water 
as a medical agent; but so great is my own faith in water 
alone as a preventive of and a cure for disease that if I were 
compelled to choose a single curative agent and forego all 
others, I think 1 would not hesitate to choose water. This 
would undoubtedly be bad for the doctors and druggists, 
but it would not be to the detriment of the health of the 
family. Those who are familiar with such use of water 
are easily able to control with it nearly every form of 
acute disease, and to greatly alleviate—perhaps as far as 
anything could—many chronic ailments. This water treat¬ 
ment is practiced largely in the various sanitariums, and 
it is spreading, especially among the better classes, to 
quite a surprising extent, when we consider how prone the 
mass of mankind is to look with contempt on anything 
which is simple and cheap. 
But I wish particularly to speak of the sanitarium treat¬ 
ment with water for the relief of the various forms of dis¬ 
comfort aud pain caused by “ taking coldand this be¬ 
cause a knowledge of it is frequently needed in every 
family, and because it is the simplest and most easily 
applied of all remedies, and is within the reach and the 
means of the poorest. Common colds or acute catarrh, 
acute pain caused by cold “settling” in any organ, pleu¬ 
ritic pains, spasmodic croup, and the early stages of diph¬ 
theria may all be treated with water with entire confidence 
in the sure and safe results of its application. In the sani¬ 
tariums trained helpers administer the treatment, and 
they are taught that certain precautions must be observed, 
or the patient may be the worse instead of the better for 
the treatment. The room in which the patient is treated 
must be well warmed; there must be no drafts and no ex¬ 
posure to air soon after treatment; after a warm bath, a 
sweat, or a pack, the surface of the body must be cooled by 
sponging with quite cold water before being dried ; and it 
must be dried by thorough rubbing both with towels and 
with the hands until the skin looks red and is warm to the 
touch. It should not need to be said that this remedy, 
like all others, is much more effective if taken in time be¬ 
fore the disease has obtained a complete mastery of the 
situation. A simple cold, for instance, if taken in an early 
stage, can be readily broken up by the old-fashioned 
method of soaking the feet in hot water before retiring, 
care being taken to cool the water for a moment at the 
last, and to rub and dry thoroughly. 
If, on the other hand, an obstinate cold be thoroughly 
established, if “every bone in the body” aches, and the 
throat or lungs feel sore, nothing less than a pack will be 
effective. This is generally considered to be “ a nuisance,” 
as it necessitates a fire in the patient’s room, hot water, 
and piles of extra blankets and comfortables. I have 
known a nervous invalid to fight a cold for days, dreading 
the bother of a pack, and growing worse every day, until 
driven to desperation by suffering or frightened by the 
serious symptoms, she has finally submitted to the treat¬ 
ment, experiencing almost instant relief, and coming out 
“made over new” within 24 hours. Nor are the sensa¬ 
tions at all unpleasant, but rather the contrary, the 
patient finding the pack so soothing after sweating begins 
that he is kept awake with extreme difficulty. Patients 
are often allowed to sleep in the pack for a half hour, 
closely watched, and they generally awake much refreshed, 
and with the cure well under way. For a hot pack, a 
woolen blanket is wrung out of very warm water; the 
patient, minus clothing, is closely wrapped first in the 
blanket, then in several layers of heavy comfortables. If 
he is able to sit in a large chair, a hot foot-bath accom¬ 
panies the treatment, together with hot drinks, hot water 
being as effective as any, the only object being to induce 
free sweating. If the patient is in bed, bottles of hot 
water are placed around the extremities, and in all cases 
the head is kept well cooled with 
a wet cloth. The cool pack differs 
from the other only in the use of 
a cold wet blanket next the skin; 
it is, perhaps, better for those 
who have abundant vitality, as 
reaction is likely to be stronger 
than when the hot pack is used, 
but it is hardly to be recommended 
for patients of low vitality, or who 
do not sweat easily. The patient 
must not be allowed to feel cold 
while in the pack: and, after a 
half hour’s free sweating, the sur¬ 
face is to be cooled and the skin 
thoroughly dried with as little ex¬ 
posure as possible, and the patient 
at once put to bed The room 
should then be aired, but never so 
as to allow a draft on the patient. 
Acute local pain, induced by coid, 
is usually treated by fomentations, 
although, if very severe, a pack in 
connection is sometimes necessary 
The fomentation cloth should be a 
large square of flannel blanketing, 
as ordinary flannel is not heavy 
enough to retain the heat as long 
as is desirable. It is folded length¬ 
wise, and being held by the ends, 
is dipped at the middle into boiling 
water, from which it is wrung as 
dry as possible, and applied to the 
source of pain as hot as the patient 
can possibly bear it: a dry towel 
being first laid over- the skin to 
prevent blistering. When it cools 
enough to be really comfortable, 
the process is repeated. Relief is usually immediate, and 
in ordinary cases the process is gone through with four or 
five times, in obstinate cases until relief is experienced. 
On rare occasions, when fomenting must be continued for 
several hours, it is sometimes alternated a few minutes at 
a time with very cold compresses, which renders it more 
bearable. 
Of the two forms of croup, the true croup in which the 
child cannot speak above a whisper, is of too serious a 
nature to be dealt with without the aid of a good physi¬ 
cian. The same may be said of seated diphtheria; but 
much may be done while waiting for the doctor. The 
sanitarium treatment includes: First, a warm bath or 
pack, as is most convenient; hot fomentations and cold 
compresses are then applied alternately to the throat, to 
prevent the forming of the membranes, if possible, and, if 
not, to aid in their separation. Inhalation of vapor, in 
some form, it may be from slaking lime, from warm 
vinegar, or from simple hot water, is also a great aid to 
this end. A paper cone or rubber tubing attached to the 
spout of an old teapot may serve as an inhaler, if a better 
one oe not at hand. In diphtheria, the juice of a lemon, 
especially if roasted, is most excellent to swab the white 
patches with, it seeming to cut the forming membrane 
promptly. If there Is a great irritation of the throat, snow 
or pounded ice is folded in the cold compresses. All forms 
of cold are considered as really inflammations or fevers, 
and sponging or any treatment which may reduce fever, is 
followed, as circumstances seem to indicate. 
C. S. VALENTINE. 
Catch The Cold And Cure It. 
“ Colds ” belong to the common minor ailments of life— 
so common, indeed, that although they often lead to serious 
diseases, people generally look upon them as of nr 11 
moment, and yet they are important. The same expi ^re 
that may at one time produce a cold, may in another state 
of the system, develop into quick consumption, pneumonia, 
pleurisy, bronchitis, peritonitis, or in children, into croup 
