As I do not wish to be thought guilty of plagiarism I must say that this article is based upon one that I read in a German period­ical some time ago, and credit must, therefore, be given to Dr. Heinz Graupner, the originator and author of the ideas upon which I have elaborated.

The doctor started his article with a plea that his readers, in as far as they may be suffering from a cough or a running head-cold, will not be nettled with him because of the title of his article. When he stated that a cold is not an illness he did not for one minute mean to imply that those afflicted with a cough or cold in the head are perfectly well, when they simply cannot exist without a handkerchief or are unable to speak a complete sentence without coughing; nor did he wish to imply that they imagine their con­dition. Of course, they have caught a cold; but a cold is not an illness, but a release. This, however, will be a matter of indifference to the host of sufferers from colds whose numbers always increase in the winter months of each year. To them, a cold is a matter of fact and not of mere words. But, as Dr. Graupner puts it: "Is it not just the same as if a hunter were to say that he shot with the bolt of his gun and not with the cartridge?" As the bolt releases the bullet or shot in its flight, so does the cold release the running nose and cough.

This assertion that a cold is not an illness is, without doubt, of practical significance, for just as the cartridge lies harmless in the magazine of the gun so long as the trigger is not pressed, so colds do not become active when the body is protected.

Now, that is easier said than done. One is more prone to colds when windows and doors of our dwellings do not shut properly in the winter time, and when, through lack of coal, our heating is not so efficient as we might wish. In this respect, there are two groups of people who can teach us a thing or two.

One group catches cold very quickly because, say, a window pane is broken. The other group, however, has fewer head colds or bronchitis when living under Spartan conditions than in those times when the central heating radiates a luxurious warmth. It is the same with many who move from the town to the country, substitute a stove for their central heating, and sleep in an unheated room. It is noticed that they usually have fewer colds after such a change. Who has not known of someone who, returning from the country to the town in winter and living in centrally-heated surroundings, has promptly caught a cold—and a very severe one at that?

Now, comfortable warmth and protection against colds do not in any way go hand in hand. Indeed, did not doctors discover this during the first world-trench-war? Out of one thousand men in the field who were subjected to bitter cold and wet there were only about four cases of inflammation of the lungs and eighteen cases of tonsilitis; while among the occupation troops living pro­tected in houses there were about six cases of inflammation of the lungs and thirty cases of tonsillitis. Hence, it follows that one does not catch cold because the weather is cold or wet or because there is a draught.

Two things can help us to avoid catching cold so that illness need not develop:

First, there is always the much-praised hardening process. This requires our co-operation, and we shall not achieve this merely by the application of the (in most instances) much hated cold water, but by exposure to the air. He who, on arising in the mornings, exposes his nude body to the air with the windows wide open, even if it be only for a few minutes, will have gone a long way towards making himself immune to colds. Any feeling of coldness can be obviated by bodily movements; he may start to tidy up his bedroom, for example, which is better and more profitable than doing a set of boring exercises. But this exposure to the air must be carried out daily, even when the weather is not at all friendly.

Secondly, there is the avoidance of anxiety about catching cold. He who always thinks he is going to contract a cold or a cough has already half opened the door to the appropriate stimulus. The peasant goes out of a very warm kitchen across his yard to the stable in bitter weather without troubling to put on a coat or even thinking about it—it is just a matter of habit with him. But he does not take cold, in spite of the great change in temperature.

Yes, we can even go further and say catching cold is also a matter of mood. Whoever is depressed or in a bad humour catches cold much more easily.

This reminds the writer of something that Dr. Braithwaite, Psychiarist to the Ministry of Health, wrote in the British Medical Journal, of 2nd October, 1943, on the common cold:

"The following facts may be of interest to either sufferers from, or investigators of, the common cold:

"During the course of twenty-five years practice of psycho­analysis for the treatment of psycho-neurotics, I have observed in them:

1. A cold invariably occurred in a particular emotional state.
   
   
2. The occurrence of a cold could be prognosticated whenever this state developed.
   
   
3. The cold could be aborted if a different emotional state could be produced in the course of treatment, or could be shortened if it had started.
   
   
4. Cold, wet, hunger, exhaustion, and a source of infection do not result in the development of a cold in the absence of the appropriate emotional state.
   
   
5. Cold 'proneness' disappears completely as a result of suc­cessful (psychological) treatment and does not return."

Dr. Braithwaite continues: "My experience demonstrates to me, at least, that the solution of the problem of the common cold lies in the sphere of preventive psychological medicine. The specific factor is psychological; the microbic one secondary."

Dr. Braithwaite's remarks on the common cold should cer­tainly make one think, and they find full support in the introduction to the third edition of Dr. Flanders Dunbar's large book on Emo­tions and Bodily Changes, under the caption, "Cold Habit," from which the following is quoted:

"It is not customary to apply the psychosomatic approach to the problem of infectious diseases. Nevertheless, as Osier said: what happens to a patient with tuberculosis depends more on what he has in his head than what he has in his chest.

"It is well known that in epidemics there is always a percen­tage of those exposed who do not succumb to the disease. It is said that some persons have a higher resistance to infection than others, and this higher resistance cannot always be explained in terms of immunization. Resistance to disease is greatly modified by such factors as fatigue and the general physiological equilibrium of the body. As Cannon and many others have demonstrated, maintenance of the physiological equilibrium is a psychosomatic problem. Whether the psychic or the somatic aspect be considered primary, the real problem is to treat, first the patient, then the disease process, and only third, the symptom.

"Experiment shows that emotional stress seriously limits the ability of the organism to regain a stable equilibrium after it has been subjected to stress or injury. There could be no better illu­stration of this fact than the enormous difference in susceptibility to colds, and in rapidity of recovery, among different individuals. No adequate scientific description of the causation of colds can yet be given. A multitude of bacteria and viruses have been found in nose and throat cultures of patients with and without colds. Colds are of different types with different consequences. It is known that quite aside from physiological susceptibility, there is such a thing as a cold habit or accident-proneness which somewhat para­llels the accident habit or cold-proneness. Gladstone is reported to have suffered from 'diplomatic' colds which occurred regularly when he was required to speak in an unpleasant situation.

"Since no one can entirely escape exposure to the various agents which may cause colds, and since there is no known way of producing complete immunity against colds, the factors in human beings which may increase or decrease susceptibility to colds as­sume primary importance.

"Saul reported that fifteen patients unusually susceptible to colds or sore throat who were treated psychoanalytically for other reasons, following treatment became either entirely free from colds or acquired them extremely rarely. In these cases no other treat­ment such as vaccine, was given. This is a common experience. Sometimes brief psychotherapy directed towards the 'cold habit' seems to produce relative immunity from colds. But a marked improvement is almost always observed in patients susceptible to colds who have been subjected to a thorough psychoanalysis."

Look to your emotional state, then, immediately you become aware of having contracted a cold; but that certainly does not mean that the health precepts are to be ignored.

When Christ healed he said: "Go and sin no more."

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