The Milwaukee Leader

YOU TELL US, READER, YOU'RE SANE.

A reader sends a clipping and asks for my opinion of the views presented in the item:

Hundred Million Colds Cost Billion a Year.

Atlantic City, N. J.—Dr. Beaman Douglas of New York, in an address before the closing session of the 31st annual convention of the Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological society said there were 100,000,000 colds a year in the United States, causing a loss in time from work of $1,500,000,000, at an average of three days each at $5 a day.

"If we men," he declared, "were to appear on the street in midwinter wearing dancing slippers, silk hose, trousers rolled to our knees and our shirts turned down to the apex of our breastbone, we should most certainly die of pneumonia, but the ladies of today dress that way and yet suffer less from colds than men.

This is because the women are out more and become hardened."

Oh, well, one might say two or three columns about it, but should one? Last Sunday I listened for perhaps half an hour, though it seemed four hours, to a sermon and it occurred to me then that it is a great sin to waste precious opportunities. Estimating the grand total of time that preacher used, at an average of 50 cents an hour, there was a loss in time from self-improvement of $65,000. Static may have had something to do with it, but it sounded more like broken antennae or exhausted B battery.

The doctor quoted in the item puts it up to the other sex, and perhaps some half-clad ladies or hardened women may consent to throw some light on the mystery.

If any such association as the doctor implies really exists, I should be glad to offer myself as an experimental subject, to appear on the street in such a costume as the doctor suggests or with as much less clothing, as the law will allow, whenever it may seem to any one of scientific standing a good time to prove that such "exposure" predisposes in any way to pneumonia or any other pathological condition except frost bite. And believe me, old timers, I am fond of warmth.

According to official statistics, males have always been more frequently affected with pneumonia than females, even in the old days when the weaker sex carried a far greater amount of clothing than the males did. The explanation for this greater frequency of pneumonia among men lies in the circumstance that males have always been more gregarious, more subject to crowding together in poorly ventilated quarters and therefore more frequently exposed to infection from the mouth spray of other persons.

Men have always been more given to alcoholism, and alcoholism is universally recognized as one of the principal predisposing factors of pneumonia.

It may not be wholly incorrect to say that "women are out more" these days. But if they "become hardened" as a result of being out so much—well, it would seem as though the men ought to take heart from such a demonstration, screw up their courage and venture out occasionally without their galoshes and chest protectors on. A fellow certainly feels like doing something desperate when he discovers in an awkward moment that two or three vitally essential buttons are missing from a more or less indispensable garment and all the women of his household out.

Here's a situation which presents to the hygienic point of view several aspects which may seem confusing to the mind of one who cherishes the fancy that exposure to cold has anything to do with pneumonia or the other respiratory diseases.

It would be illuminating to hear what some of the modern "hardened" women think about this.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

Cocoa Butter Poor Food.

Can I develop my bust with cocoa butter and will it tend to grow hair? (P. N. L.)

Answer—The idea that cocoa butter or any other substance applied externally will "develop" or fatten or fill in or nourish any part of the body is merely one of the bits of hokum dealt out by ignorant "beauty experts" and dishonest vendors of cosmetic nostrums.

Cocoa butter will not grow hair, nor does any other grease, cream, oil or ointment cause hair to grow. Excessive rubbing or friction or frequent irritation in any way, does sometimes stimulate the invisible down to heavier growth.

C. V. D. and H. B. P.

Kindly give a list of foods that will tend to reduce high blood pressure, in other words foods one should avoid who has high blood pressure.

Also please tell me the normal blood pressure for a woman of 42 years. (F. S. D.)

Will you kindly inform me as to the meaning of the word "arteriosclerosis"?

(B. V. M.)

Answer—There are no particular foods which increase or decrease blood pressure.

Your physician can advise about your diet; no one else can do so intelligently. I do not believe it is healthful to give technical information about blood pressure. Arteriosclerosis means hardening of the arteries. I have no information for well folk concerning high blood pressure or arteriosclerosis, but I should be glad to send you some general information about either condition, if you mention that your physician has diagnosed one or both. You see, I don't want to help any well person to assume an ailment that doesn't belong to him.

Rubber Pants.

I keep rubber pants on my baby, 9 months old, both night and day, as I feed her on the bottle and she gets very wet. Would you kindly let me know if this is bad for her, getting cold in her stomach? (Mrs. S.)

Answer—The objection to such a makeshift is, first, the uncleanliness of it; second, the tendency toward irritation of the skin and setting up eczema, and third, the discomfort the infant suffers from wet and cold. Only absorbent material should be used for diapers. Perhaps your feeding formula is at fault.

Copyright. National Newspaper Service.