THE EFFECTS OF EXPOSURE TO COLD UPON EXPERIMENTAL INFECTION OF THE RESPIRATORY TRACT

Abstract

1. Respiratory infection of rabbits with Bacillus bovisepticus (snuffles) is favored by chilling the animals after they have been accustomed to heat. 2. The character of this disease, which occurs frequently in rabbits under natural conditions, makes the application of the experimental results to similar respiratory conditions in man less open to objection than in similar experiments with other infections. 3. The weight of experimental evidence, including our own, does not justify the elimination of exposure to cold as a possible though secondary factor in the incidence of acute respiratory disease. 4. From the limited data of our last two experiments it is suggested that any marked change of temperature predisposes rabbits to this infection, the severity of which varies with the amount of change, and that a change from low to high temperature has an even more marked effect than that from high to low.