Cold Wars: the Fight against the Common Cold.(Book Review)

David Tyrrell, Michael Fielder

Oxford University Press, 19.99 [pounds sterling], pp 253 ISBN 0 19 263285 X

Rating: ***

Who hasn't had a cold, or indeed colds, in the past 12 months? Probably no one reading this review, unless you spent the time completely isolated--for example, on an Antarctic weather station or on Tristan da Cunha. Yet the cold, the commonest of all illnesses, has no prophylaxis and no effective cure. This in spite of the longest list of suggested therapies for any disease, ranging from John Wesley's advice in 1747 to "pare very thin the yellow rind of an orange, roll it up inside and thrust a roll into each nostril" to Nobel …