THE CAUSE AND CURE OF COLDS
page: [][View Page []]BY THE SAME AUTHOR
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THE SCIENCE OF LIVING, OR, THE ART
OF KEEPING WELL. With
Appendix and
Index and many drawings.
8vo,$1.50 net.
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A. C. McCLURG & CO., PUBLISHERS
CHICAGO
[View Figure]
FIG. 1. Sectional view of Nose and Throat
THE CAUSE AND CURE
OF COLDS
BYWILLIAM S. SADLER, M.D.
PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGIC THERAPEUTICS, THE POST-GRADUATE MEDICALSCHOOL OF CHICAGO DIRECTOR OF THE CHICAGO INSTITUTE OF
PHYSIOLOGIC THERAPEUTICS; MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN
MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, ETC., ETC.
AUTHOR OF "THE SCIENCE OF LIVING; OR, THE ART OF
KEEPING WELL"
ILLUSTRATED
SECOND EDITION
CHICAGO A. C. McCLURG & CO. 1911
COPYRIGHT
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1910
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Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England
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Published October 1, 1910
Second Edition, March 25, 1911
PRESS OF THE VAIL COMPANY
COSHOCTON, U. S. A.
DEDICATED
TO
THE VICTIMS OF COMMON COLDS, AND
TO ALL WHO
LIVE IN CONSTANT
FEAR OF CATCHING COLD
PREFACE
OF all the minor maladies from which the civilized races generally suffer, common colds are undoubtedly the most widespread and distressing. Colds, constipation, and headache constitute a trio of common afflictions which are very largely preventable.
Fully nine-tenths of these distressing minor maladies, together with their attendant social inconvenience and pecuniary loss, could be easily prevented.
Professor Irving Fisher, in his report on "National Vitality" prepared for The National Conservation Commission, estimates that the average well man is compelled to lose about five days each year as the result of colds, headaches, and other of these minor physical disorders.
The author's lecture, "Catching and Curing a Cold," is given to about one hundred thousand people each summer at the leading page: viii[View Page viii] Chautauquas, and for several years it has been his practice to question these audiences as to the number of days lost each year because of colds. While statistics of this sort are not absolutely reliable, being largely based upon memory and gathered hurriedly in public; nevertheless, as the result of these observations, we are convinced that the average adult annually sustains a loss of between two and three working days as the result of "bad colds," "colds in the head," or "a slight touch of the grippe."
Suppose we allow that the adult wage-earner loses on an average but two days annually as the result of colds. Let us estimate the daily wage of such men at two dollars. It is certain that large numbers of people who are kept from their work by colds sustain a loss equal to many times this sum. Now, estimating that we have, say, fifteen millions of wage-earners who are thus afflicted each year, it will at once appear that we have a direct economic loss of sixty million dollars.
Further inquiries conducted by the author tend to show that the average individual spends from one to two dollars on either patent page: ix[View Page ix] medicines, "cold cures," or physicians' fees each year in the treatment of this so-called minor affliction. Twenty million dollars each year would be a very moderate estimate for what is spent directly on the treatment of colds, and this hardly makes allowance for the money spent in treating colds in the case of infants, children, and other non-wage-earners, all of whom suffer equally from this complaint. Thus, by the most moderate estimates based upon fairly reliable data, we have a direct annual loss to the American people of fully eighty million dollars as the result of colds. If the real facts were fully known and we were in possession of absolutely reliable statistics, we believe this sum would undoubtedly mount up to more than one hundred million dollars. It certainly would if influenza and its after disability and treatment were taken into account. But let us be moderate in dealing with statistics of this sort, and estimate the annual pecuniary loss from colds, direct and indirect, at eighty million dollars.
But the monetary loss from these minor maladies is indeed a very small part of the page: x[View Page x] harm they accomplish. Medical men are now awakening to the fact that colds in the head, chronic catarrh, the grippe, etc., are proving to be the forerunners, in many cases, of more severe maladies, and ofttimes they lay the foundation for various deadly diseases, including tuberculosis and pneumonia, together with serious disorders of the nervous system, and grave diseases of both the heart and the kidneys.
Colds are not only responsible for an enormous pecuniary loss, but they must be looked upon as undermining and sapping the vitality of the people; as lowering the vital resistance of the individual to other and more serious infections.
Colds are also directly concerned in decreasing the general efficiency of all. who are attacked. The estimate of the loss of two or three days each year from colds does not include the days of decreasing efficiency which so often precede the actual absence of the individual from work, neither does it take into account the days or even weeks of decreased efficiency which frequently follow cold-infections, page: xi[View Page xi] although the sufferer has returned to work and is vainly endeavoring to perform his customary tasks. It is a well-known fact that both mental efficiency and the physical capacity for work are greatly lessened in the case of those who are suffering, or recently have suffered, from a bad cold.
Colds result in untold inconvenience, in that they often seriously interfere with the fulfilment of business, professional, and social engagements. The catching of a cold is liable to interfere with both the small social gathering and the large public meeting. A public lecturer is not only prevented from delivering his message as the result of catching a cold, but the humble citizen is also prevented from hearing it; for one who is suffering from a cold in the head seldom desires to attend either private social functions or public lectures. But this indisposition is hardly to be regarded as an unmixed curse. Sufferers from a severe cold should go to bed. It is for their good as well as the good of the community, that colds should be more or less quarantined, for, in the last analysis, most colds are infectious maladies. page: xii[View Page xii] The individual suffering from a cold is not only a health menace to those with whom he mingles, but he is also quite incapacitated for doing himself any special honor in the realms of social conquest.
While this volume is based largely upon the author's Chautauqua lecture, "Catching and Curing a Cold," much of the matter found in Chapters IV, V, and VI was originally prepared for "The Designer," and our thanks are due the editor for his courteous permission to publish this matter in permanent form.
It is the sincere desire of the author that this little work shall contribute something toward a sensible understanding of the cause of colds, aid in their prevention, and materially assist in their successful management and treatment in accordance with rational rules and scientific principles.
WILLIAM S. SADLER.
100 STATE STREET, CHICAGO,
September 1, 1910.
page: xiii[View Page xiii]CONTENTS
- CHAPTER PAGE
- WHAT IS A COMMON COLD? 17
- THE PREDISPOSING CAUSES OF COMMON COLDS 28
- THE EXCITING CAUSES OF COMMON COLDS 39
- THE PREVENTION OF COLDS 51
- THE GENERAL TREATMENT OF COMMON COLDS 71
- THE TREATMENT OF THE DIFFERENT STAGES OF A COLD 84
- ADENOIDS AND THE TONSILS 106
- INFLUENZA-- LA GRIPPE 123
- CHRONIC CATARRH AND COUGHS 138
LIST OF FIGURES
- PAGE
- FIG. 1 Sectional View of Nose and Throat Frontispiece
- FIG. 2 Group of Germs Causing Colds 24
- FIG. 3 Errors in Clothing which Predispose to Catching Cold 34
- FIG. 4 Taking Sweat Baths in a Portable Cabinet Bath 76
- FIG. 5-7 Illustrations of Nasal Douche and Massage 88
- FIGS. 8-10 Illustrations of Head and Throat Compress 92
- FIG. 11 The Hot Blanket Pack 98
- FIG. 12 Cold Mitten Friction 98
- FIG. 13 Method of Putting on Chest Pack 102
- FIG. 14 A Child with Adenoids 114
- FIG. 15 The Wet Sheet Pack 134
