COLDS.

No disease excites so little attention; and yet, when improperly treated, none is so often followed by distressing, if not fatal, consequences, as a cough or cold.

"A common cold," as it is carelessly called, is generally considered to be of too trifling a nature to require particular attention; and persons are unwilling to postpone either business or pleasure on account of an indisposition which they deem of so little moment.

To explain the symptoms of this disorder under all its various forms, properly belongs to the medical writer; but, considering that, in a treatise of this description, so important a matter should not be altogether overlooked, more especially as it is beyond the power of any medicine to prevent colds, I will endeavour to give the unprofessional

reader a clear understanding of the nature of a complaint so insidious, and, at the same time, so prevalent in this country. With this view, I proceed to point out as concisely as possible,— first, the causes of colds; secondly, the means of distinguishing when there is, or is not, danger; thirdly, the only possible means of guarding against them, or mitigating the attack when it cannot be evaded. A cold is the popular name for an inflammatory or irritating affection of the nostrils, throat, and cavity behind the tongue, and is in every sense of the word a fever; arising, like other fevers, from sudden checks to the perspiration by exposure of the body to atmospheric changes, when in a state of weakness and susceptible of danger. It has its stages in the same manner as other fevers, and, if neglected or improperly treated, is but too likely to be followed by the same consequences, however slight it may have been in the first instance.

It does not comport with my design to enter into an examination of all the predisposing and exciting causes of colds; but, in order to show, distinctly, in what manner they are "caught," it is necessary to state, that an extraordinary sympathetic affection exists between the action of the external skin and a membrane which passes from the mouth through the back of the throat

until it reaches the air-tubes of the lungs, and is designated the mucous membrane. Any cause, therefore, that deranges the action of the external skin, by checking or obstructing perspiration, is found to induce inflammation and irritation in this membrane. The result is what, in common parlance, we call a cold.

It may, perhaps, elucidate the subject, to explain, first, the symptoms of a sneezing or common cold. This is usually attended with heaviness on the eyes and forehead, and with a distressing sense of fulness and heat in the nostrils, occasioned by the mucous membrane which lines the nose and its cavities being locally affected. In such a case, cough and disposition to fever are very slight. Secondly, a sore throat arises from a similar affection of the mucous membrane, extending to the immediate vicinity of the throat. Thirdly, hoarseness is occasioned by an affection of the mucous membrane in connection with the organs of the voice. And, fourthly, cough takes place when the affection reaches the bronchial tubes (as they are technically termed), which are the air-tubes leading from the trachea, or windpipe, to the lungs.

The first two, namely, a sneezing cold, and a sore throat, are not dangerous, if properly treated.

All that is necessary to obtain a cure in these cases, is, to regulate the temperature of the body by employing the ordinary means of moderating feverish actions, of unloading the bowels by some innocent aperient, and promoting expectoration. This mode of treatment will generally subdue a cold; and, in nine cases out of ten, simple aperient medicine and broth diet are sufficient. It not unfrequently happens, that where a strict regimen alone has been observed, nature will free herself from the complaint without external aid, though some medicine that may happen to have been taken immediately before the cold disappeared gains credit for the cure.

But hoarseness and loss of voice, if, through negligence or the adoption of improper treatment, inflammation be allowed to gain ground, make a very perceptible assault upon our whole system, and considerable danger is to be apprehended, the parts attacked being more nearly related to the principles of life than those which are the seat of a common cold and sore throat.

The variation of colds in form and importance evinces the necessity of immediate resort to a course of treatment proper to the individual case, more especially when there is the slightest appearance of obstinacy in the disease; but it not unfre

quently happens, that day after day is allowed to elapse before remedial measures of any kind are adopted; and, when at length the mischief has widely spread, and attention is impelled to it, recourse is had without much discrimination to almost any nostrum that may by chance be recommended by friends and acquaintances, who assure us that so and so is the finest thing for a cold or cough; and opiates, sudorifics, pectoral elixirs, balsamics, gruels, bathing the feet in warm water, and drinking cold water, are all indiscriminately tried. Thus it happens that modes of treatment are frequently adopted, which, though excellent at an early stage, if judiciously applied, are unfitted to, and may prove most injurious at an advanced period of the disorder. The patient, after consuming several weeks in trying all these various modes, finding his simple and comparatively harmless disease transformed into a severe and perilous one, at length calls in his medical adviser, who in the first instance might have easily cured him, but now finds it a difficult, if not an impracticable undertaking.

It is not for me, however, to prescribe for these complaints; all I conceive myself called upon to do, is, to point out a mode by which, if we may not render ourselves altogether impregnable to their attack, we may at any rate exempt ourselves