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THE COMMON COLD.
THE COMMON COLD.—THE BASEMENT CHILD.
539
these workers have been able to cultivate the virus of the common cold. And with the fifteenth subculture, representing a dilution of 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000, they have produced typical colds in two out of three human volunteers. Not less interesting are the speculations of DocHEZ and his collaborators on the part played by this virus in respiratory infections in general. Their experimental work has shown them that this virus renders the respiratory tract more susceptible to the implantation of pathogenic organisms, as well as enhancing the activity of any potential pathogens which may be present there. Observations in America have shown that the common cold has three peaks of incidence, one in September and October, another in January and February, and a third in April and May. Further, the cases occurring in winter and spring are usually more severe than those arising in the autumn. Coincident with this increased virulence of colds as the winter lengthens into spring there is an increasingly wide distribution of such organisms as the pneumococcus, the influenza bacillus, and Streptococcus hœmolyticus in the nasopharynx of healthy individuals. Thus as the winter advances the opportunity enlarges for these potential pathogenic organisms to cause infection, with the result that their distribution becomes more widespread and their virulence is probably enhanced. It is at this period of the year that pneumonias and bronchial infections are most common, and it may well be that DocHEZ’s virus is in part responsible for this. Be this as it may, the principal thing for the moment is that the aetiology of the common cold has at last been cleared up. Complete confirmation of these findings is forthcoming from an investigation carried out by P. H. LONG and a team of collaborators 1 on human volunteers at the Johns Hopkins University and an important. field is opened up for further work. All who have followed these researches of DOCHEZ and his associates must have been struck not only by their thoroughness, but also by their undeviating march towards success. It is a brilliant piece of work.
hydrochloride,
THE LANCET. LONDON : SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1931.
THE COMMON COLD. THE medical
profession is much abused because it cannot cope with the common cold. Here, people say, is a world-wide disease which is always with us and is responsible for an enormous amount of discomfort and loss of human efficiency ; yet nothing is known about its causation, and its treatment is empirical and unsatisfactory. To anyone acquainted with the facts such a criticism is of course manifestly unjust. The problem of aetiology is far from being a simple one ; the very fact that it has remained unsolved so long is proof enough of that. None of the ordinary laboratory animals is suited for its investigation and the disease is so widespread in man as to make him of little value as an experimental animal unless he is subjected to most rigorous quarantine and irksome isolation. For some time now the idea has been current among bacteriologists that the primary cause of the common cold is not one of the ordinary bacteria, but a member of the group of filterpassing viruses. Support to this view was lent by the findings of W. KRUSE (1914), G. B. FOSTER(1916), and H. DOLD (1917) ; but doubts have now been settled beyond all dispute by the masterly investigation which Prof. A. R. DoCHEZ and his colleagues describe elsewhere in this issue. Their work soon led them to the conclusion that the visible bacteria present in the nasopharyngeal discharge were only of secondary importance, so they turned their attention to the filter-passing viruses. And since observation had shown that the chimpanzee was subject to a respiratory infection resembling in every way the human cold, they used this animal for thelr experimental work. The results of these experiments on apes left no doubt that the cold virus filter-passer. Typical colds were produced chimpanzees by means of the filtered nasopharyngeal washings from human cases, passages was a
in
in series from ape to ape were realised, and infection by contact was shown to take place. Needless to say the most stringent precautions were taken to exclude infection from outside sources. DOCHEZ and his colleagues then proceeded to carry out the Here same experiments with human volunteers. the care was taken to that ensure again greatest their subjects were not infected before being taken on experiment and that all outside sources of infection were excluded. The human experiments were just as conclusive as those made with the chimpanzee. But this is not all. Using a culture medium consisting of a special buffered broth containing chick embryo tissue and brought to a suitable reduction potential by means of cystein.
THE BASEMENT CHILD. FROM the Bishop of SOUTHWARK we have in a small volume 2 some penetrating observations upon the social conditions of one district of his. industrial diocese. He records the circumstances of living which are compulsory upon the inhabitants of the southern shore of the Thames from Battersea to Woolwich, an area that is densely inhabited by a wage-earning class-where, that is, employment is obtaining a return in wages. Dr. GARBETT gives a vivid picture, based upon knowledge and checked by experience, of an urban area, where men,. women, and children are condemned to make such homes as they can amid the evils of overcrowding-an area where the safeguards of sanitary supervision and the benefits of social service, both well displayed, cannot keep the menaces 1 Jour. Exper. Med., 1931, liii., 447. In the Heart of South London. By the Right Rev. Cyril Forster Garbett, Bishop of Southwark. London: Longmans Green and Co. 1931. Pp 152. 3s. 6d. 2
539
these workers have been able to cultivate the virus of the common cold. And with the fifteenth subculture, representing a dilution of 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000, they have produced typical colds in two out of three human volunteers. Not less interesting are the speculations of DocHEZ and his collaborators on the part played by this virus in respiratory infections in general. Their experimental work has shown them that this virus renders the respiratory tract more susceptible to the implantation of pathogenic organisms, as well as enhancing the activity of any potential pathogens which may be present there. Observations in America have shown that the common cold has three peaks of incidence, one in September and October, another in January and February, and a third in April and May. Further, the cases occurring in winter and spring are usually more severe than those arising in the autumn. Coincident with this increased virulence of colds as the winter lengthens into spring there is an increasingly wide distribution of such organisms as the pneumococcus, the influenza bacillus, and Streptococcus hœmolyticus in the nasopharynx of healthy individuals. Thus as the winter advances the opportunity enlarges for these potential pathogenic organisms to cause infection, with the result that their distribution becomes more widespread and their virulence is probably enhanced. It is at this period of the year that pneumonias and bronchial infections are most common, and it may well be that DocHEZ’s virus is in part responsible for this. Be this as it may, the principal thing for the moment is that the aetiology of the common cold has at last been cleared up. Complete confirmation of these findings is forthcoming from an investigation carried out by P. H. LONG and a team of collaborators 1 on human volunteers at the Johns Hopkins University and an important. field is opened up for further work. All who have followed these researches of DOCHEZ and his associates must have been struck not only by their thoroughness, but also by their undeviating march towards success. It is a brilliant piece of work.
hydrochloride,
THE LANCET. LONDON : SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1931.
THE COMMON COLD. THE medical
profession is much abused because it cannot cope with the common cold. Here, people say, is a world-wide disease which is always with us and is responsible for an enormous amount of discomfort and loss of human efficiency ; yet nothing is known about its causation, and its treatment is empirical and unsatisfactory. To anyone acquainted with the facts such a criticism is of course manifestly unjust. The problem of aetiology is far from being a simple one ; the very fact that it has remained unsolved so long is proof enough of that. None of the ordinary laboratory animals is suited for its investigation and the disease is so widespread in man as to make him of little value as an experimental animal unless he is subjected to most rigorous quarantine and irksome isolation. For some time now the idea has been current among bacteriologists that the primary cause of the common cold is not one of the ordinary bacteria, but a member of the group of filterpassing viruses. Support to this view was lent by the findings of W. KRUSE (1914), G. B. FOSTER(1916), and H. DOLD (1917) ; but doubts have now been settled beyond all dispute by the masterly investigation which Prof. A. R. DoCHEZ and his colleagues describe elsewhere in this issue. Their work soon led them to the conclusion that the visible bacteria present in the nasopharyngeal discharge were only of secondary importance, so they turned their attention to the filter-passing viruses. And since observation had shown that the chimpanzee was subject to a respiratory infection resembling in every way the human cold, they used this animal for thelr experimental work. The results of these experiments on apes left no doubt that the cold virus filter-passer. Typical colds were produced chimpanzees by means of the filtered nasopharyngeal washings from human cases, passages was a
in
in series from ape to ape were realised, and infection by contact was shown to take place. Needless to say the most stringent precautions were taken to exclude infection from outside sources. DOCHEZ and his colleagues then proceeded to carry out the Here same experiments with human volunteers. the care was taken to that ensure again greatest their subjects were not infected before being taken on experiment and that all outside sources of infection were excluded. The human experiments were just as conclusive as those made with the chimpanzee. But this is not all. Using a culture medium consisting of a special buffered broth containing chick embryo tissue and brought to a suitable reduction potential by means of cystein.
THE BASEMENT CHILD. FROM the Bishop of SOUTHWARK we have in a small volume 2 some penetrating observations upon the social conditions of one district of his. industrial diocese. He records the circumstances of living which are compulsory upon the inhabitants of the southern shore of the Thames from Battersea to Woolwich, an area that is densely inhabited by a wage-earning class-where, that is, employment is obtaining a return in wages. Dr. GARBETT gives a vivid picture, based upon knowledge and checked by experience, of an urban area, where men,. women, and children are condemned to make such homes as they can amid the evils of overcrowding-an area where the safeguards of sanitary supervision and the benefits of social service, both well displayed, cannot keep the menaces 1 Jour. Exper. Med., 1931, liii., 447. In the Heart of South London. By the Right Rev. Cyril Forster Garbett, Bishop of Southwark. London: Longmans Green and Co. 1931. Pp 152. 3s. 6d. 2