CONTAGION OF COLDS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 454, 6 April 1912, Page 3

CONTAGION OF COLDS.

Dr. A. Coolidge expresses himself in a paper a s being in sympathy with the assumption that a common cold signifies an acute bacterial infection of the mucous membrane of the upper respiratory tract (the breathing passages). Among the acute disorders of the nasal chambers we mny distinguish some as due to infection and others as arising from a local irritability and "vasomotor" disturbance. When we recognise this difference more definitely we may classify the latter with hay fever and its kindred, and announce that £ real cold is a contagious disease. There is much evidence to prove that a common cold is contagious, and the community would gain much by this assumption. The doctor agrees with other observers that colds havt an incubation of from two to foui days ; that they remain contagious for several days, and that acquired immunity is short. The objection tc draughts and wet and cold, in moderation, which induces humanity to shut itself up in airtight enclosures, is often due to an unwarrantable fear of "catching" just those diseases which are communicated by sneezing coughing, and poor ventilation.