sh air" in order to keep from suffocating. Everywhere a
man goes, day or night, he is in a draught caused by the crazy
ideas about fresh air.

Our wise ancestors, who as a rule lived much longer than we do,
and had much better health, said:

"If the wind should blow through a hole,
God have mercy on your soul."

After the correspondent has learned that our ancestors had more colds
than we, had poorer health, and died twenty years younger, perhaps he
will listen to proof that his unclean warm air weakens the body and
makes it an easy prey to cold germs.

Many physicians preach and practice this fallacy as to fresh air and
colds, but few physicians now deny that influenza is a germ disease or
that a nose so irritated and so neglected as to secrete large
quantities of mucus is a better place for breeding disease germs than a
nose whose membranes are clean and not thus irritated.

Until medical specialists are agreed, and until they have definitely
located the cold germ, we laymen must choose for ourselves a working
theory. The weight of opinion at the present time declares that colds
are due to germs. Strong membranes with good circulation and drainage
provide poor food for germs. Congested membranes furnish proper
conditions for propagation. The germ theory explains the spread of
germs from the nose to the passages of the head, and from head to
arteries and lungs.

A cold can always be charged to some one else. How many can be laid to
our account? There is one right that is universally not recognized, and
that is the right of protection from the germs showered in the air we
breathe, over the food we eat, by the sneezes of our unfortunate
neighbor at school, in the street car, at the restaurant. The chief
danger of a cold is to our neighbor, not to ourselves. A cold which a
strong person may throw off in a day or two may mean death to his
tuberculous neighbor. Though for our own health "lying up for a mere
cold" is an unnecessary bore, the failure to do so may deprive our
neighbor of a right greater than the right to protection against
scarlet fever or smallpox. Though formerly this statement would not
have been true, rights change with conditions, and the fact that to-day
the three most deadly diseases are pneumonia, tuberculosis, and
diphtheria,--all diseases of the respiratory organs,--justifies the
assertion that we have a right to protection against colds. The
prevalence of colds, sore throats,