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To enjoy life, one must be in good apparatus. What is called a cold, then, health; and to remain free from disease is in reality a fever; and though in the is the desire of all. Yet there are some majority of instances it is of such a trivial ailments which do not interfere very nature as to necessitate few precautions much with the pleasures of life, and being taken during its attack, yet in therefore are not dreaded in conse- some cases it runs a most acute course, quence-nay more, they are frequently and may be followed by great prostratreated with neglect, although in many tion. Even when the premonitory sympinstances they are the precursors of more toms of a cold are developing themserious disorders which may in not a selves when, for example, what a few cases have a fatal termination. medical man calls a rigor, or as it is How often to the usual greetings which popularly designated, a shivering is felt, one friend exchanges with another is the when we would naturally suppose that reply given "Very well, thank you, the animal temperature is below par, it except a little cold." A little cold; is at that very moment higher than the and yet how significant this may be. In normal; thus showing the onset of fever. how many cases do we find a "little cold" resemble a little seed which may sooner or later develop into a mighty tree. A little cold neglected may and frequently does prove itself to be a thing not to be trifled with. Let me then pray my readers to remember that small beginnings in not a few instances have big endings, and this especially where disease exists. Let us then consider what is a common cold.

In the first place we must be paradoxical, and affirm that it is not a cold at all. It is rather a heat, if I might so express myself—that is, it is a form of fever, but of course of a very mild type, when it is uncomplicated by other disIt is certainly in the majority of instances due to the effects of cold playing upon some portion of the body, and reacting upon the mucous membrane through the intervention of the nervous NEW SERIES.-Vol. XXXIII., No. 6

eases.

Before going at once into the symptoms and nature of the disease under discussion, it will be advisable to dip a little into that most interesting department of medical science - physiology, and indeed, without doing so, it would be quite impossible for the majority of my readers to understand the manner in which cold acts in producing the inflammatory condition of the mucous membrane of the nose, or as it is called, the Schneiderian membrane-which inflamed condition constitutes a cold in the head. It will be necessary to understand what a mucous membrane is, what its duties are, and how these duties are performed, before entering upon a description of a disease attacking it. To take the mucous membrane of the nose as an example. We find that it is a membrane spread out over a very large area, lining as it does a great many un

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dulations caused by the arrangement of the bones composing the walls of the nostrils, so that a very much greater surface is required to be traversed by the air entering the lungs through the nose-the natural passage-than is required by the actual length of the canal. The object of this is obvious, when we take into account the fact that the temperature of the air is usually either below or above that of the human body, and that it is almost invariably loaded with particles of matter which would irritate the lungs did they find access to them.

If

The tortuous passage of the nose thus tends in the first place to equalize in some measure the temperature of the atmosphere inhaled, with that of the lungs; and in the second place, the mucus which is secreted by the Schneiderian membrane being of a tenacious nature, tends to attract and ensnare the impurities which the air may contain. We thus see that the nostrils act as a filter to the air taken in by inhalation. we observe any mucous surface we cannot help remarking its deep-red color, this being due to the close network of blood-vessels ramifying on its surface. In consequence of this accumulation of minute arteries and veins through which warm blood is constantly flowing, a pretty high temperature is constantly maintained in any cavity lined by mucous membrane. There is therefore little difficulty in understanding how important a part the nostrils play in preparing the air for its entrance into the sensitive structure of the lungs. But the nostrils do not only temper the air-they also yield to it an amount of moisture which renders it still more bland and less irritating. We see, then, that the functions of the nostrils as regards the atmosphere inhaled are threefold-(1) in equalizing its temperature, (2) in moistening, and (3) in filtering it. The latter function is materially aided by quite a forest of minute hairs which guard the entrance to the passages.

Having noticed how distended the blood-vessels of the mucous membrane naturally are, it will not be difficult to understand how slight a disturbance of the balance of blood-supply will be necessary to produce congestion or inflammation of the structure, and such is really the case; and it is because of this

that people who have what is called an irritable mucous membrane are so susceptible of cold. They have, in fact, a chronically congested mucous membrane, which, however, is usually associated with and dependent upon a disordered digestion. Yet notwithstanding these facts, a cold is not produced by cold air acting upon the surface which suffers. It is quite true that there are individuals with peculiar idiosyncrasies who take catarrh when they smell certain substances. For instance, many cannot go into a room where powdered ipecac is exposed without immediately catching catarrh in the nasal passages; and there is reported the case of a man who could not smell a rose without being affected in a similar way.

We must now go a step further before we can understand the modus operandi by which a cold in the head, or in any other region, is produced. It has been shown that one of the functions of a mucous membrane is to secrete mucus. But what is it that makes the secretion vary in quantity? Well, an irritant applied directly to the surface may produce an excessive flow, and this superabundance of mucus is thrown out by an effort of nature in its endeavor to shield the delicate membrane and remove the irritant; this may happen also when there is an excessive amount of blood in the vessels, which is the case when congestion exists, the distension of the blood-vessels acting as an irritant, and supplying in greater amount the fluid from which the mucus is extracted, thus tending to excite the secreting power to greater effort. Thus we have an explanation of the excessive discharge in catarrh of the nose. But when the direct irritant is removed, the unnaturally abundant discharge ceases. so, however, when the superabundance is due to the effects of cold; for in the latter case a diseased condition is set up, which will only disappear when the effects of the exposure upon the nervous system have passed away.

Not

Having demonstrated that cold is not produced by the action of cold air playing upon the part affected, but that, on the contrary, it is an effect of cold acting upon a distant part of the body, it will be necessary to explain how this is brought about. If a person sits in a

draught of cold air, and this draught is directed upon the back of his head, the chances are that a catarrh of the nasal passages will result, and this is produced by what is called reflex action of the nerves. Here it will be necessary to diverge a little and explain what reflex action is. It must be understood, then, that there are numerous nervous centres connected with the spinal cord. These nervous centres send filaments of their nerves to various portions of the body. For example, a nerve centre may be placed alongside the spine in the neck, and from this point nerves may be distributed to the back of the head and the mucous membrane of the nose. One important function of these little bodies is to control the supply of blood to different surfaces and tissues and organs. This is done by a system of minute nerves which are distributed on the arteries, by which the vessels are kept in a state of contraction. Now, if these nerves are severed from the main trunk, the blood-vessels immediately expand to the full extent of their calibre, and congestion is the result; or if these nerves are paralyzed, the same effect is produced. Sometimes a very slight shock produces a temporary paralysis of these minute nerves when a rush of blood takes place into the arteries, of which blushing is a good example; but the nerves soon recover their control over the blood-supply, and the blush passes away. Then again, the shock may produce quite the opposite effect; this may be so severe as to cause such extreme contraction of the blood-vessels, that a deadly pallor pervades the face, as for instance in severe shock from fear. This, however, is caused more by the effect of shock acting upon the nerve centres which supply the heart with motor power.

to one part of the body are thereby reflected to other parts. Instances of reflex action may be seen frequently in every-day life. Take, for example, the action of the eyelid when an object threatens to enter the eye. The retina perceives the object advancing; this is telegraphed to the nervous centre supplying the muscles which open and shut the eyelids, and immediately a message is sent back to the eyelids to shut and exclude the particle of matter that threatens to enter the eye. All this is done so quickly that it is hardly possible to realize that there is time for reflex nervous action being brought into play.

But let us suppose that one extremity of a nerve arising from a particular nerve centre, is irritated; this is communicated to that centre, which is affected thereby, it may be slightly or more severely. The irritation may be so great as to prostrate for the time being the nerve centre, and in consequence all the nerves arising from it are thrown into a state of inaction. This is called the reflex action of that nerve centre, because the effects of the irritant applied

Another instance of reflex action, but this time influencing the secretions, may be cited.

Who is not familiar with the effect of a savory smell or the sight of some luxury upon the salivary secretion, so that, to use a common expression, the mouth waters.' In the first, the olfactory nerve is the means by which the impression is conveyed to the nerve centre; in the other, it is the optic nerve which is the transmitting agent ; but in each case the impression is reflected to that nerve controlling the salivary secretion, with the effect of producing an increased flow of saliva. thus see that the secretions can be influenced by one nerve conveying its impression to another whose filaments take origin in a common centre.

We

Now, to come to the subject more directly under consideration in this paper, we must comprehend how cold acting on one part of the body produces catarrh of the nasal mucous membrane. Exposure to the most intense cold for a lengthened period will not produce this effect. Indeed, we find it invariably the case that severe frost in winter is, so far as catarrh is concerned, the healthiest weather we can have. During the prevalence of frost, as a rule, colds are at a minimum. The system here shows its power of accommodating itself to the circumstances surrounding it, and actually benefits by the prevailing low temperature. Let us, however, suppose a person to be sitting in a room the temperature of which is, say, seventy degrees Fahrenheit, and that a current of cold air is rushing in at an open door or window and playing upon the back of his head, or it may be on his legs or

feet, and the probability is that he will "catch cold," and in nine cases out of ten this cold will be a catarrh in the head, and what may appear more remarkable still, only one nostril will at first be affected. Now, if the catarrh was due to the inhalation of cold air, both nostrils would suffer; but it is not so, for as each side of the body is supplied by its distinct set of nerves, so only that side is affected through which the reflex disturbance has been transmitted. The modus operandi is the following: The draught of cold air acting, we will suppose, on the back of the head, conveys through the sympathetic nerve, which ramifies on the scalp, a shock to the nervous centre from which these nerve fibres proceed; but we must understand that this nerve centre sends its filaments to other portions of the body, and so the shock which this centre receives by one set of nerves, is reflected by another set to some surface quite remote from that primarily acted upon; and in this way a temporary paralysis of the nerves supplying the blood-vessels of the mucous membrane of the nose is brought about. In consequence these vessels become dilated and engorged, and the shock which has brought about this congestion continuing, disturbs the equilibrium of the blood-supply, and so an inflammatory condition is set up. When this exists, the blood-vessels are enormously distended; consequently an excess of blood passes through the part, the little cells which secrete the mucus being thus excited and working much more rapidly than when in health. In this way the enormous discharge of mucus which accompanies a cold in the head, is accounted for.

Another effect of this irritation of the mucous membrane is sneezing, which is an effort of nature to restore the equilib

Of course

rium of the nervous centre by another kind of reflex action. Sneezing in catarrh is a method nature adopts to stimulate the prostrate nervous centre, and thus enable it to reassert its proper control over the blood-supply to the part; indeed, it will be found that the effects of being exposed to a draught of cold air are often completely destroyed by a succession of sneezes. nature does not always immediately succeed in these efforts; but when she does not, the shock from which the nervous centre suffers gradually passes away, and the blood-vessels again come under the control of the little nerves which regulate their calibre, and so the catarrh disappears in a few hours, or at most in a few days. It sometimes happens that the shock from the cold air acting upon the nervous centre is of such severity that the consequent inflammation is intense enough to check the secretion of mucus altogether, and in consequence the mucous membrane is dry as well as inflamed, and the suffering very much intensified.

So far, we have only glanced at a cold in the head, which passes away in a few hours, but this is not always the happy termination. There is a peculiar tendency which inflammation possesses of not leaving off where it commenced, but of invading the tissues in its immediate neighborhood, and more especially when the tissue is continuous with that primarily attacked, as is the case with the mucous membrane of the air passages. A cold may commence in the head and rapidly spread by what is technically termed continuity of tissue into the chest; and so what at the first promised to be only cold in the head may terminate in an attack of bronchitis, or even inflammation of the lungs.Chambers' Journal.

THE PENNY PRESS.

HALF a century ago, or thereabouts, it was the dream of a number of amiable and philanthropic persons that society could be regenerated by means of the penny press. The working classes were, it was somewhat gratuitously assumed,

panting for knowledge, and nothing stood in the way of their gratification but the various duties levied by the excise upon the materials of printing and upon paper. It must be owned that there was but little foundation for this

notion, and that it was rather a question of what ought to be than what actually existed. There were, it is true, a certain number of working men anxious for self-improvement, but their number was not large, nor, in view of the peculiar circumstances of their class, is it probable that it ever will be. A man must be very exceptionally constituted if, after nine or ten hours passed at a carpenter's bench, or in an engineer's workshop, he is prepared to sit down to mathematical or general scientific study. Persons of this type are, perhaps more numerous than they were, and with the extension of education their number may be expected still farther to increase. Such working men will, however, always remain exceptions to the general rule, and that fact it will be as well to recognize. Brougham, and the philanthropic founders of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, failed to do so, and to that circumstance must be attributed the comparative failure of the Society, and of the almost innumerable Mechanics' Institutes which at one time dotted the surface of England. Had there been a little more practical common sense, and a little less unworldly theory to guide them, the founders of the Useful Knowledge Society might have accomplished infinitely more than they did. Their mistake lay in supposing that any considerable proportion of the working classes would invest an appreciable proportion of their scanty earnings in the purchase of the interminable numbers of a Penny Cyclopædia, and in believing that they could be induced to read, much less to buy, such literary bran as Brougham's "Dialogues on Instinct, or Harriet Martineau's "Illustrations of Political Economy." The collapse of the society, and the fact that no attempt has been made to resuscitate it, sufficiently prove the accuracy of this view, while the present condition of the penny press of this country affords an ample confirmation of it, supposing such further confirmation to be necessary.

Leaving newspapers out of the question, the weekly and monthly publications issued at this price may fairly be said to present one of the most remarkable phenomena of modern times. Their number is enormous, and their circula

tion almost fabulous. It is probably no exaggeration to say that between five and six millions of penny papers are circulated in London alone every week.

Scarcely any of them are absolutely vicious in character- thanks to the energy which the police as a rule display in carrying out the provisions of Lord Campbell's Act-but there are not a few which trench on the border land of vice; while of the great majority which remain, the principal characteristic is a senile imbecility on the one hand, or an irrational sensationalism on the other, equally destructive to anything like masculine vigor of thought. Reading is, according to the copy-books, an intellectual occupation, but few will be hardy enough to contend that such intellectual fare as that provided by the non-political penny press requires the smallest amount of mental power for its assimilation. Its readers are indeed not those who want to think, but those who wish to escape from thought; and there can be very little doubt in the minds of most people as to the fact that it would be desirable on every account if those who are in this latter case should seek their diversion in avowed recreation rather than in the enfeeblement of their intellects by idle and enervating reading. It is perhaps hopeless to expect that this view of the matter will meet with any general acceptance. Anything in the shape of a book is of consequence in the minds of some people; and thousands more are still under the dominion of those manuals of advice for students and aspiring working men which hold up for emulation the examples of certain of their heroes who in their leisure time occupied themselves, not with such frivolities as chess, or draughts, or backgammon, but invariably sought their amusement among books. Still, an examination of the matter which forms almost the only intellectual food of a vast proportion of the inhabitants of this country, may not be without interest, though the conclusions arrived at may not be precisely those in favor of the admirers of cheap literature for the people."

In this connection newspapers may fairly be left out of account, though it is a somewhat unpleasant reflection that there are millions of Englishmen who never read anything else, and that among them

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