Treatment of a Cold in the Head by G. H. HEALD

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 21, 1911

Treatment of a Cold in the Head

By G. H. HEALD

G. H. HEALD, M. D.

It is not necessary to describe symptoms, except to remind the reader that the time to begin treatment is when the nostrils first feel dry and stuffy, before the nose begins to “run.”

The old-fashioned purge by castor-oil is an excellent beginning, though the full enema may accomplish much good. The next treatment should be a cabinet bath. The apparatus may be improvised from the following articles: A chair, with a blanket, or other protection on the seat and down the front; under the chair a pan of boiling water over an alcohol-stove; in front of the chair a pail of hot water; a large double blanket; a cloth wrung out of cold water; an attendant to give the treatment. The bed should be convenient.

The patient, in nightshirt, should sit in the chair with his feet in the pail of hot water. The blanket should be formed into a kind of tent around the patient (leaving his head out), chair, and pail, and so arranged that more hot water may be added to the pail as the patient can bear it. The treatment should be continued until free perspiration is induced. Meantime the cold cloth should be kept on the patient’s head, and wrung out of cold water as often as it warms up. More hot water should be added to the pail until it is as hot as can be borne.

When free perspiration is established, the patient, after his feet have been thoroughly dried, may stand, and with the blanket wrapped close around him, get into bed and remain there for twenty-four hours if practicable. If the treatment is begun early and faithfully followed, it will abort any ordinary cold. Unfortunately few attempt to “break up” a cold until it is too late.

At the beginning a spray of an alkaline antiseptic solution (tablets on sale at drug stores) or of salt or baking-soda, a teaspoonful to a pint of water, is good as a cleansing agent. Later a spray of albolene or liquid vaseline containing five per cent each of camphor and menthol, is bland and soothing.

One should be careful not to blow the nose violently, as this is apt to force mucus up into the Eustachian tubes, and cause middle-ear trouble and permanent deafness.

It should never be forgotten that “cold in the head” may be the beginning of some serious contagious diseases, like measles. A child with cold in the head should invariably be removed from school; for in any case the trouble is infectious.