Love & Sniffles

"Darlig?"

"Yes, sweed."

"Wudderful way to sped a huddybood, isid id?"

"Wudderful."

In Britain, it is both smart and thrifty to honeymoon at the Harvard Hospital,* near Salisbury. There, snuffling cheerfully last week in the cause of Science, Newlyweds Darlig & Sweed were serving with other volunteers as guinea pigs in a study of the common cold.

It was not as unromantic as it sounded. To newlyweds willing to take a shot of cold "germs" with their honeymoon, the hospital offered a free ten-day holiday in a cozy, secluded retreat. Others who were taking advantage of the offer: tired businessmen, housewives, students. The hospital has a full house and a waiting list of more than 500, is booked solid for at least six months.

Chief of the investigation is pink-cheeked Dr. Christopher Howard Andrewes, who in 1933 discovered that ferrets could be infected with influenza, thereby paving the way for experiments which produced a flu vaccine. The common cold is different: only chimpanzees and human beings catch it. Chimpanzees are scarce and costly. Dr. Andrewes decided to call for human volunteers.

The volunteers live in a group of twelve cottages facing Salisbury Plain. Paired off two to a cottage, they have meals delivered at the door, enjoy a free pint of beer or cider daily, newspapers, magazines, unlimited long-distance telephone service, a nine-hole golf links. Only restriction: guests must keep a 30-yard distance from everyone but their cottage partners. Visitors are not allowed unless heavily masked (see cut).

The investigation's long-range aim: to isolate the cold virus and develop a vaccine. Each guest, on admission, snuffs a fluid up his nose. About 45%, used as controls, snuff only a harmless broth; the rest get virus-containing nasal washings from people with colds. Only about one-fourth of all the subjects actually come down with colds. Thus far, the doctors have no important new findings to report, but they think they have definitely established that wet feet, exposure to cold, etc. do not necessarily cause colds. The mischief is done by sneezers.

* Presented to the British during the war by Harvard University and the American Red Cross as a center for study of infectious diseases.

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