Influenza and the Common Cold Dr. David Thomson, speaking at
the British Homceo- pathic Congress, said that major influenza epidemics, such as that which caused twenty million deaths in 1918-19, only occur at intervals of about 3o years, but minor epidemics far more frequently. A great many of the infec- tions which are often called influenza are not the real thing at all. But even the common cold, which for most people recurs with regularity every year, is not to be despised because its toll in mortality is not high. The lowering of the vitality of half the nation for some days or weeks every year is, in the sum-total, an immense loss to national health and efficiency. The medical profession devotes intensive research, rightly, to the more deadly and more spectacular diseases, such as consumption and cancer. One would like to have re-assurance that the simpler ailments, among them the common cold, are receiving the same sort of attention.
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