The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1890-02-18
HISTORY OF THE INFLUENZA.

era IN one OF the Sixty tIodolSOo
which he bequeathed to posterity.
Hlppocrates attributed it to supernal
causes, and so did the medieval
Italians, who bestowed upon it the
epithet 1t now bears, believing that
it was occasioned by the malignant
'infuence" of the stars. In France
it is known by the more expressive
title of La Grippe. 1t was conject-
ured by the illustrious Sydenham
that the epidemic is traceable to some
occult and inexplicable changes
wrought in the bowels of the earth
itself, by which the atmosphere be-
comes contaminated with certain
effiuvia, which predispose the bodies
of men to some form of disease"
And this hypothesis derives a certain
amount of support from the fact that
the deadly epidemics of tie middle
ages were generally preceded by
great telluric disturbances, owing to
which certain pestilential gases were
disengaged from the subterranean
regions of the globe, and poisoned or
seriously vitiated the air; and the
symptoms of those who were sudden
ly stricken down by the plague, or
by the sweating sickness, so closely
resembled those occasioned by the
administration of poison, that in
some countries the ignorant and
superstitious populace accused the
Jews of having poisoned the wells.
The first eruption of the sweating
sickness in England, lasting from
August 1885 until January 1886, was
preceded by torrents of rain, fire.
quent foundations and baneful ex-
halations from the sodden earth, not
only in the mother country, but on
the continent of Europe, where the
Tiber, the Pc, the Danube and the
Rhine overfowed their banks and
spread great devastation. The sec
ond visitation, in 1866, was herald
ed by wet summer, a severe winter,
an eruption of Vesuvius, mould spots
in France, a murrain among the
cattle in Germany, and violent
storm In England which lasted for
II days. A wet summer and earth
qdakes in Sua5ia and Spain were the
precursors of the third visitation in
1917. That of 1928 was the sequence
of a cold spring, a moist summer
with fogs, warm winter, failure
of the crops and foundations. There
were an earthquake in Upper Italy,
a disease among the birds and the
fresh-water fish in Germany, which
were unwholesome to eat, and also
among the porpoises in the Baltic.
The fifth and final visitation, that of
1861, was preceded by floods and
storms, triple rainbows, mock suns
and moons, observed in many parts
of Europe, mould spots, an exuber-
ant growth of the lowest or cryptic
gamic forms of vegetation, an earth
quake in Lisbon, and swarms OF To-
Gusts and caterpillars in Southern
Europe.
The influenza appears to have
broken out for the first time in
France in the year 1911, when it
proved fatal to great number of
persons. In 1403 it's ravages were
so serious that the law courts had to
be closed in consequence. 1t reap
peared in 1411 and again in 1414;
but it was then known as the "co-
queluche," because persons suffering
from it were recommended to envelop
their heads in the hoods which were
so called Jean Bouillet, a celebrat-
ed French practitioner, connected its
outbreak with the occurrence of cold
wet seasons. 1t prevailed in 1910, in
1857, in 1877, and in 1880. The in
fuenza of 1910 manifested itself after
cold and particularly tempestuous
winter, accompanied by frequent
earthquakes, by which nearly the
whole of northern and central Italy
was shaken. The ordinary catarrhal
symptoms of the malady were &C
companied by giddiness and head
ache, followed by severe rheumatic
pains, during which an infammatory
fever set in, under whose influence
the patient became delirous Many
sudden deaths occurred, and the ex-
cessive mortality was aggravated by
the ignorance of the faculty and
their belief in the saving virtues of
purgatives and blood letting. DIR.
Sangrado's method of treatment was
almost universally practised in the
sixteenth century on the continent of
Europe, where unhappily, it had not
died out when Camille Cavour was
stretched upon bed of sickness less
than thirty years ago.
In 1867 the same malady spread
rapidly over France, Italy, Germany
and Holland. 1t attacked young and
old, rich and poor; and when it en-
tered a household it usually pros
trated every member of it. It was
rarely fatal, however, except in the
case of young children. 1t was fol-
lowed in the Netherlands, by ma
lignant plague, which ragged for
whole, year, and carried off 5000 per-
SONS in Delft alone. The influenza
epidemic of 1880 was exceedingly
severe. In the mother country it was
preceded by earthquakes. Myriads
of insects, peculiarly believed to have
rioon ont of tho oarfh f,IIod +bo -