CATARRH (Gr. katarreo, I flow down), a disease of great frequency in temperate lati tudes, especially in changeable moist climates in the winter season. From its well known connection with sudden falls of temperature, and other epidemic or atmospheric causes (see INFLUENZA), as also from the chill often experienced at the commencement of the disease, it is popularly called a cold—a term, however, perhaps somewhat less definite in its meaning than C., which word is usually restricted to the case of a cold affectin,;* the chest, and attended with discharge of mucus by coughing. A "cold in the head " is termed, in strict scientific language, coryza; we shall, however, keep both forms in view in the present article. C., or cold, commonly begins with a feeling of chilliness, which may or may not be attributable to external causes. Sometimes this is :Absent, there being only a sense of languor and indisposition; not unfrequently there is no sensation of an unusual kind, until a stuffing is experienced in the nostrils, or severe headache, or hoarseness with cough, or oppression of the breathing. The regular form of a cold is to attack the nostrils first, and afterwards the air-passages leading to the chest. When it habitually attacks the chest, without running through its ordinary course as indicated above, there is often some special' cause of delicacy in the lungs, or some constitutional tendency towards consumption (q.v.). The discharge is in the beginning watery, becoming afterwards more abundant, glairy, and of yellowish color; the early statics of the disease are attended by considerable irritation of the surfaces affected, and probably no one of the little miseries of life is more prostrating and dis couraging for the time than a bad cold in the head. The tendency of C. to attack the chest, and thus to pass into bronchitis or pneumonia (q.v.), or to lay the foundation of tubercular disease, constitutes almost its only danger. See CIIEST.
The treatment of a cold is commonly a simple matter, so far as the particular attack is concerned. Confinement to the house, and, in severe cases, to bed, or to the sofa, for a day or two; a warm hip or foot bath, to remove the chill; light farinaceous diet, and, if the stomach and bowels are at all loaded, a dose or two of some gentle laxative, are commonly sufficient to subdue the disease. Some persons cure their colds by entire abstinence from food, and as much as possible from drink; others by a large opiate, or by a succession of doses of Dover's powder; others by spirit of mindererus and pare goric; some even profess to carry out the popular maxim, "stuff a cold, and starve a fever," and maintain that a good dinner, and a tumbler of whisky or brandy toddy, are the best specifics. That colds get well under all these methods, needs not be denied; but that any violently perturbative or specific practice assists the cure, or shortens the dis ease, has yet to be proved; and multiplied experience has shown, that " stuffing a cold" is by no means to be commended. In the later stages, however, a more liberal diet than at first, and in some cases even a moderate allowance of stimulants, affords consid erable relief from the feeling of depression that remains for a time on the subsidence of a catarrh. The tendency to this disease, when habitual, and when not dependent on any form of constitutional disorder requiring special means for its cure, is best met by the daily use of the cold bath, with frequent exercise in the open air, and proper venti lation of the sleeping-apartment; also by friction of the skin, and by clothing, which, without being oppressive, is comfortably warm. Exposure to draughts or sudden chills, when the surface is perspiring, is to be avoided; but a close confined air habitually breathed in a workshop or bedroom, is a fruitful predisposing cause of the disease.