Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

I ALL AOVLR Why “COLDS” and “GRIP” How They WEAKEN YOUR BODY and Pave die Way for MANY OTHER DISEASES Are Dangerous Hv LEONARD KEENE HIRSHBERG, \.B„ M.l>„ M.A. (Johns Hopkins). T HERE is only one sure way to avoid colds and the grippe, und that is by locking yourself in an air- llgtit caisson somewhere in the vicinity of the North I’ole, Where no other human being has ever breathed the air. Everywhere else on earth the influ enza germ is bound to get you sooner or later, in the last ten jours every man and woman in the United States luis suffefed from its diabolic activity. Influenza spreads and rages like a plague oi old. it is infectious and contagious, apd it works quickly. Three or four days after Its bacilli invade your air passages you are in bed and there, If you are wise, you will remain at least a week. When the disease strikes a community few or none escape. .lust because it Is so common Americans have fallen into the error of regarding influenza lightly. By the average layman, in fact, it is looked upon merely as a sort of exaggerated and persistent cold. But between an ordinary cold and la grippe a great gulf is-t fixed. The’ one, broadly speaking, is a local malady, and as a rule it cures itself within a few days. The other, to borrow a disused term, is a zymotic disease. In 1904 it killed 7,000 Americans directly, and probably 20,000 indirectly. Therefore, it is apparent that influenza demands serious consideration Before the great epidemic of 1889 medical men had very little definite knowledge of the cause and nature of "griti." The disease had been epidemic from time to time for 800 years, but as it seemed, in comparison to other plagues, to lie a very slight, tiling no heed was paid to it. When in 1889 it invaded Europe by way of Russia and then spread to all parts of the earth, the medical profession in a dozen countries began gN ing it close attention. The result was the discovery of the minute organism which produces the malady. This discovery was made simultaneously by Pfeiffer, a Germajt, and Kitasato, a Japanese, and since then the germ' has borne the name of Pfeiffer's bacillus. This bacillus is one of the gay motes that dance along a sunbeam. Under the microscope it appears as a tiny thin ‘rod, usually straight and with somewhat rounded ends. It multiplies with a thousand times the rapidity of a rabbit. Introduce half a dozen influenza germs into your bronchial tubes to-day and a week hence your body will be the abiding place of 100,090,000,000. When a man has the grip ' or a "cold ' his air pas sage, are fairly alive with bacilli, and every time he expectorates or takes a long breath he expels million ■* of them. Thus they get into the air, and other persons breathe them into theit lungs and get the disease, too. When they enter the body through tiie nose or mouth the germs ordinarily lodge iu the intermediate air pas sages. There they multiply rapidly and begin to send forth their poisons. These poisons coursing through the blood incommode and cripple all of the bodily or gans. The infected person feels tired and stupid, his temperature rises and pains and aches appear in ai directions. A man with the “grip,” indeed, is a mai poisoned, and sometimes there is poison enough in his veins to kill him. The eight most cpmmon forms of influenza or “grip" are briefly as follows: 1— “THE COLD IN THE HEAD” TYPE—Th^s type produces effects much like those of a deep-seated cold, hut the prostration is greater and there are severe pains in the limbs and back. This is a very familiar form of Influenza. 2— THE BRONCHITIS TYPE—The effects of this type are much like ttiose of an ordinary attack of bron chitis, with severe racking coughs and a fairly high fever. Tliis variety of the disease in itself is not very dangerous, but it lias a deadly tendency to pave the way for pneumonia and tuberculosis. 3— THE TYPHOID TYPE—This is frequently mis taken for a so-called “mild” attack of typhoid fever. The fever usually subsides within a week and complete WHAT A COLD OR GRIP MAY LEAD TO: A—Abscess of the Ear; B—Pneumonia; C—Insan ity; D—Nasal Catarrh; E— Pleurisy; F—Appendicitis; G— Bronchitis; H—Heart Disease; l-Jftu ndice; .1—Rheumatism. recovery follows soon afterward. In genuine typhoid the period of illness is much longer and the condition of the patient very naturally is far im.fr grave. 4.—THE PLEURISY TYPE—This is characterized by pains in the chest and stomach, in addition to the or dinary symptoms. It is caused by the germs lodging in the pleura— the membrane which encloses the lungs. This type of influenza, while not very dangerous in itself, is apt to cause serious complications. 5.—THE PNEUMONIA TYPE—In this the patient suffers from a real pneumonia, with the difference that while in the common form of pneumonia the disturb ances in the lungs are caused by a germ called the pneumococcus, in this the ‘disturbing factor is ‘Pfeif fer's bacillus. 6—THE RHEUMATIC TYPE is characterized by the symptoms of rheumatic fever — a high temperature, swollen, painful joints and general functional dis turbances. The wrist, knee, elbow and shoulder are the joints most commonly affected. This form of the malady is caused by an invasion of the joints by the influenza or “cold" germ 7.—THE NERVOUS TYPE is a very severe one. it may lead to nothing worse than neuralgia, and then again it may lead to-abscess of the brain or meningitis. It is caused by the influenza or “cold” germ invading the jierve tissues, the spinal cord or the brain. Some- lines the symptoms are much like those of sciatica. At other times long-continued delirium or insanity re sults. 8—THE STOMACHIC TYPE is characterized by a general invasion of the digestive tract by the influenza germ. The first symptom is vomiting, and this is often followed by acute pains in the abdomen, diarrhoea and other disorders of the bowels. When the germ invades the organs used for the elimination of waste they are impeded and jaundice appears. When it stops off at the vermiform appendix the result is appendicitis. But the chief danger of "grip” and “colds” lies not in their own direct effects, but in the fact that they weaken the body and open the way for the entrance and rapid increase of the organisms of other diseases. The Wood has a hard time manufacturing enough anti toxin to counteract the poisons they generate, and when the work is done and the patient is cured his blood is vitiated. These white corpuscles have a great appetite for germs, and under a high-power microscope you can see them at work. They appear as transparent bags and the germs as little dark specks' of various shapes. Through the walls of each corpuscle you can «fee some times a dozen dead germs. They eat a lot of them, and if the germs are not too numerous and the white cor puscles are in good health every germ in the blood stream will be gobbled and destroyed. But In some diseases the germs multiply with such astonishing rapidity that the white corpuscles are soon gorged and can eat bo more. Then the germs, being comparatively free to do as they please, generate their poisons in immense quantities. fortunately, the blood, even when the white corpuscles are unequal to the task of swallowing ail the live germs, still has a capacity for producing a sort of antidote for the germ poison. This is called an anti toxin, and its effect is to make the germ innocuous. So long as a man’s blood is able to produce enough antitoxin to neutralize the poison secreted by the germs in his tissues he is sure to get well. But even when this is accomplished and the "grip” or “ctffd" patient begins to feel better, it often hap pens that the severe work of producing a great amount of antitoxin leaves the patient exhausted, lie is not only incapable of producing more influenza antioxin^but is also incapable of producing any considerable amount of antitoxin to tight the toxins secreted hy the germk of any other disease—pneumonia or tuberculosis, for instance. That is why, when a man is recovering from influenza or "cold” he is peculiarly susceptible to pneu monia and tuberculosis. Efforts are being made to produce an artificial anti toxin to aid the antitoxins of the blood iu their light against the poison of the ‘'grip” and “cold” germs, in addition, bacteriologists are trying to perfect a'vaccine callable o'' protecting human beings against infection The familiar smallpox vaccine has robbed smallpox of its old terrors, and some da$', it iB hoped, "grip" and "colds” will cease to afflict ns, too. Meanwhile there is no specific remedy for influenza, and all the physician can do is to keep the body of the patient as vigorous as possible and try fo counteract the effects of some of the symptoms, such, for instance, as fever. Good feeding and proper nursing are essen tial, particularly in the nervous forms of the disease. Warm bath§ and hot drinks aid in the cure and ice packs on the head reduce the fever. It is best not. to take home meilh ines of any sort, but rely entirely oil a good doctor’s prescriptions. Why RED Is a Poor DANGER SIGNAL Musi We Be DRIVEN FROM THIS EARTH? JL 'HE red danger signal is more apt to cause acci dents than to prevent them. Science has just discovered that red is about the very worst color that could possibly be selected for danger signal purposi s, although 1* has been universally used ever since the earliest times. its ineffectiveness is equalled only by green mid green, strangely enough, is tin only other color gener- illy used for signal purpose- Red and green are the standard signal colors on all railroads and the port ad starboard tights on vessels have been red grt ■ l, respectively, front time.immemorial. and lust- two colors are the worst that could he chosen • i In* pin pose hei ause tin-’ cannot be distinguished fr u each <. her bj those who suffer from the most common form of color blindness, and color blindness is constantly on the increase. One male in every i .. nt••live suffers from it. These two colors are said to he' tin most confusing tfi the human retina, even a en it is normal. According to Dr. Francis 1). etterson. who lias made , study of tiie danger signal question. Industrial acci- (U : will continue to increase in number as long as red is used for danger signal purposes. He suggests the use of blue and yellow in tlie place of red and green and presents scientific reasons in support of his contention. Dr. Patterson points out tiiat the use df red as a danger signal not only debars numerous color blind individuals front employment in occupations in which ii color perception is necessary, but subjects many more to dangers against which red signals are sup posed to afford sufficient warning. His experiments witli spectrum and with color blind persons, as well as with various colors at different dis tances, led him to conclude that tiie best colors for danger signal purposes are blue and yellow. He says they are the most luminous colors of the spectrum, are permanent and fast, are the only colors which give rise A to normal color sensation as soon as they strike the eye and even color blind persons react to them. For practical reasons fop. lie declares, blue and yel low might profitably he adopted in the place of red and green. They do not fade so quickly as a result of ex posure to sunlight and consequently they require less frequent repainting How ADVERTISING LOWERS PRICES y— oks he 0* nstimer pay the advertising bills' I ^ Many economist have maintained that he does. J--’’ in,! in t mi I arm sums which mauufactur and that in tiie large sums which ers. wholesale houses and retail dealers are spending for advertising lies one of the chief reasons for tiie present high cost of living. There is, however, much convincing evidence to show that the right kind o[ advertising produces exactly the opposite effect and that, instonm of raising prices, it lowers them and im proves the quality of the goods into the bargain. In other words, you get a better article at a lower price when it is intelligently advertised than when it is not To understand why this is so. consider the two functions of ail advertising- first, to individualize tiie product: and, second, to increase tiie demand for it The Hfiportance of the first function is apparent to at) who have even a superficial knowledge of modern trade conditions. A nationally known and nationally ndver tlsed trademark Is an asset that market fluctuation cannot dissipate. It lias at all times a fixed, market able value. Whether advertising raise the selling price or cheapens the quality is a matter concerned entirely with the second function. Fan the demand be in creased without the consumer having to foot the bills That is the question. It lias been proved again and again that the saving in manufacturing costs per unit between a maximum sale tier thousand on an unadvertised brand and a like sale on an advertised brand is far greater than the cost of advertising. Those who do not advertise do not get either the reduced cost of manufacture that comes from a large volume of sales or the decreased selling costs which come -with trademarking and adver tising. Advertising, then, b> reducing the cost of pro duction, and also tiie cost of selling makes it possible to give the consumer either a lower price or a better product or both without lessening the manufacturers’ profit. Certain ilk manufacturers inaugurated some time ago an advertising campaign in the Interest of a trade marked line of silks. Within a fixed period $60,000 was spent in this campaign. Tiie sales made in • this period amounted to $:s,000.000; or $50 in sales for every dollar iu advertising. Because of the volume of business the manufacturers were able to produce their goods at the lowest possible ratio of cost, and to sell on the same basis. The con sumers. therefore, were a direct ben eficiary. Anothef manufacturer was selling his-line tlirough salesmen on a 10 per cent, commission basis. He began a country-wide advertising campaign, and soon after found that the demand for the line was so great that he was able to cm his 'salesmen's commission to 5 per cent. To-day the salesmen are making more money at 5 per rent, than they formerly made at 10 per cent. Not only that, but the manufacturer has sliced 3 per cent, from selling costs, as the advertising averages only 2 per cent, of the sales. GLOOMY prospect for the human race is pictured by Professor John Rennie, of the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, who declares that man is destined to be driven from this earth just as, ages ago, the .mastodons and other mammoth creatures which now exist only in fossil remains were forced into extinc tion. Man’s fate, Professor Rennie maintains, will be due to the constant battle which is in progress on land and water between the larger creatures and the smaller ones—with the latter always in the end victorious. It is a law of nature that all living things must wage relentless war upon those of greater brain power and greater size. This the tiny ones are able td do only by increase in numbers. It was by the extension and multitudinous in crease of stone and cocoanut throwing monkeys as well as missile and javelin throwing missing links that the human race was gradually evolved at the expense of winged dragons, flying ana condas, ptereodactyls, dinosaurs, mammoths and other great beasts now extinct. It is through the operation of the same law that great fish of the sea serpent, octopus and whale type are either completely destroyed or fa^t dytyg out. The whale, like the buffalo, is doomed. The discovery of the North Pole by Peary and the South Pole by Amundsen makes its extihe- tion only a question of a few^ years. Man himself, who prides himself in his vanity as the lord of all creation, must eventually fol low the buffalo, the whale and the mastodon. The human tribe, smaller than any of the crea tures already extinct, is destined now to fall the victim of even tinier living things. Mankind drove the bigger beasts from tiie face of the earth, just as the codfish are crowd ing the whales from the oceans. In similar way the pneumonia microbe, the ultra-microsc-opic virus of rabies, the bacillus of tuberculosis and the infiinitesimally minute poison of cancer are gradually, insidiously, pushing man into extinc tion. Even the fly, the mosquito, the flea, the bed bug, the caterpillar, the worm and other small predatory insects are aiding and abetting the gigantic task of driving the human race from the globe. Indeed, almost all the tiny living creatures partake of the character of enemies to mankind. Just as certain large animals, such as moose. buffalo, elephants and the like instinctively fear, the ‘microcosmos, man, so many off us shudder at tiie very mention of “bugs," “worms,” “snakes.” AVe know intuitively that there is eternal strife between us and them, and that they are all seeking our extermination. All of our discoveries for the preservation of health, the destruction of germ life, the immu nization against bacteria,^ poisons and the like may postpone the day of mankind’;; doom, out only for a moment, geologically speaking. TJi.-re is no escape from the sent* nee Nature 1. - in posed. The fact is tiiat in etesnal nature all great things give way sooner or later to the dis integrating force exerted by virtue of thei' stir face mass and numbers by multiple little filing; FAN Your DISHES to Save Time A YOU MIGHT TRY- DD one more to the long list, of ways in which electricity is saving us time labor and expense—the electric dish dryer. Every housewife and not a few husbands will be glad to know of this newest time and * labor saving appliance which, the electrical experts assure us, does away forever with the old method of drying dishes by labot- iously wiping each one with a piece of tow elling. And the beauty of the new method is that there is no expensive or complicated mechan ism to buy and operate. The electric dish dryer is so simple that any clever woman can easily make one at home. A small elec- ' trie fan, a wire basket, a kettle of hot water and, of course, the necessary current—that's everything that's required. Its method of operation is as simple as the apparatus itself. Having duly washed tne dishes in the usual way, place them on end* in the wire basket. The dishes should stand as nearly erect as possible with a little space separating them from one another Then pour very hot water over the basketful of dishes and bring in the electric fan The fan should be placed so that when the current is turned on the. breeze wjll hit the edges of the plates as they stand upright in the basket. The dishes need no attention while the fan is drying them and the house wife can find a wide variety of pleasant and profitable tasks to fill the time she would otherwise have had to spend wielding a dish towel. The same happy result can be obtained with record breaking speed by using the hot air blast from a hair dryer, but an ordinary electric fan answers all practical purposes, although the operation takes a trifle longer. For Rheumatism. THIE acids found in practical)}' all fruits are a simple but very effective remedy for relieving a rheumatic condition of the system. For Aching Feet. JF your feet ache after dancing or a long walk, there is nothing better for them than a soaking in very hot salt and water. After the bath they Bright Colors Make Babies Grow? D 0 bright colors—the shades in the “warm” end of the spectrum—have a stimulating effect on the organisms should be rubbed briskly, especially about the ankles, with a rough towel. 0 f young children? Would babies grow faster To Heal Chapped Skins. KINS tliai have been chapped and made rough by exposure can be re lieved by applying with a bit of old linen a lotion consisting of one ounce of rose water, half an ounce of glycerine, half a teaspoonfu! of borax and three drops of benzoin. To Clean Black Satin. DEEL and slice two large raw potatoes, and put in a pint of water with L a pinch of salt, and let stand all night. Next morning sponge the satin on the right side with, this mixture and wipe Tightly with a cloth. Then iron on wrong side, and it will be a,s glossy as new. The TRUTH About Your STOMACH Revealed by the X-RAYS T HE X-rays have given surgeons a more complete knowledge of what the stomach looks like and how it does its work than they had ever been able to learn from their experiments on the operating and dissecting tables. ill the first place the X-rays show that tiie stomata is never, as pictured in the anatomies, in a nearly hori zontal position with the opening from the esophagus al most on a level with the outlet into the intestine. It is. on the contrary, nearly vertical, or, sometimes, tilted at an angle of 45 degrees. In shape the stomach .resembles a fish hook or a cow's horn. Just which ot these two shapes is the organ's normal one is a matter of dispute. Some au Ithorities say that the cow horn form is the normal 'type, because it is- best suited for rapid emptying. Others declare for the fish hook or letter .1 form, sa>- itig tiiat this shape is more suitable for digestion be cause it allows the food to remain longer in the lower part where it becomes more intimately mixed with the gastric juice and better ground up before passing into the intestine. The X-rays have also taught us that the normal stomach, when empty, is in a state of collapse. Its .v.alls close up so that they touch, and only when food 2 ) Four Different Types of Stomachs and the Time Required to Empty Each. is called, is always present when there is food in tire stomach. When a stomach is widely (filated by disease or some other cause, the food at once falls to the bottbm. As more food is swallowed the lower pole of the stomach ’stretches and sinks. No matter how large a meal is eaten such a stomach wall never squeezes its contents and faulty digestion is the result. Tiie position of the stomach depends somewhat upon the position of the body, it is best observed with the X-rays when the body is in a standing position. When the body is reclining the stomach appears more hori zontal, although even then not so much so as the pic tures in the anatomies would have us believe. Res and belter if dressed in bright yellow, kept in white rooms and rocked to sleep in cribs of red, pink arid other of the brightest hues? These are questions which Britisli scien tists are debating with interest as a result of some curious experiments which’ Profes sor Charles W. Valentine has lately been making with the color perceptions and pref erences of infant children. The babies used for the professor's tests were ai! three months old and selected from a wide variety of homes. At frequent inter vals covering periods of two weeks bits of w ! ool of different colors were held before ■ them for two minutes at a time, and the length of time a child gazed at each of them was carefully recorded. Nine colors were used, and each color was presented at least once with each of the other colors. At the close of the tests the total scores of each color were added together. Very wide differences were noted in the effect of the different colors on the children. Yellow, white, red and pink, in the order named, invariably aroused their greatest, in terest and held their attention longest. Brown and black came next, while green, violet and blue proved to have the least at traction. The brightest colors were obviously liked best, but why yellow should have been pre ferred to white’and .red to pink remains to be explained. Professor Valentine suggests that possibly the infants instinctively recog nized those colors which at tiiat age hnvo the most stimulating effect on their muscular strength. How Alcohol Gels into Your Spine T r WO German investigators have recently found the toxin of tetanus (lockjaw), also aceton and aceto-acetic acid produced by diabetes in the spinal fluid of persons suffering from these diseases. Follow ing up this suggestion, they sought to deter mine whether the spinal fluid in alcoholics piration. drawing in of the abdominal walls, pressure of \ contained alcohol. is admitted does a cavity become visible., When a mix lure of bismuth and water is introduced into the stomach the X-rays show first a narrow streak along the left wall and extending to the very lowest part. If more of the mixture he swallowed, the streak be comes wider and wider as the walls expand to admit it but there is little if any descent. As the stomach's muscles contract they cause its walls to hug the food firmly. A space along the upper part of the base of the cavity, however, remains clear of food, and is filled with gas. This gas or "stomach bubble." as it other organs within the abdomen—all may change the, form and location of the stomach. The waves of muscular action which grind and mix the food and ultimately force it from the stomach begin as soon as the food reaches the organ. As the X-rays clearly show, they start about the middle of the stomach and move in the direction of the intestine. The length of time required for digestion depends upon the size and shape of the stomach and the fre* quency of these muscular waves. It ranges from two to six hours. All the greatest students of the subject agree tha* a diseased condition exists when food re mains in the stomach longer than six hours. It is known that few substances pass from the blood to the cerebral spinal fluid. It has been surmised that alcohol having a definite affinity with cerebral substances would natur ally be found 1n quantities in the cord. They found that the pressure of the fluid in the cord was increased and that they were able to take out large quantities of fluid, particularly in alcoholics. This fluid was found to be unchanged in many ways. It was found that after removal of the fluid, or some quantity of it, the patient became more quiet and the headaches .vhich preceded this condition disappeared. The fluid removed was replaced by sterile saline solu tion. Ten cases were investigated. The results were that alcohol was found in all of them. In some instances it was aldehyde, au oxidation product from alcohol. In lOight of the ten cases alcohol was present in con siderable amount. Several of the cases showed the presence of alcohol four and five days after its use had been discontinued, showing that elimination was a very slow process. The investigators did not go into the history of the case.s to determine the amount of alcohol taken by the persons experimented on. They make the sug gestion that possibly persons suffering from delirium tremens might show a high blood Yes sure irr the cord and a large quantity cv alcohol and its products fie present. r I I * « v \r OopyritrM. 1°V mm