St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-27
La GRIPPE a CENTURY 400.
The Epidemic Described BY a
Physician of the Time.
New York Times.

The Epidemic Described BY
Physician of the Time.
New York Times.
1t is fact of some interest that the
present epidemic of influenza is merely
another centennial celebration like
our Washington Inauguration centenary
and the Paris exposition to COM
memorate the beginning of the
French revolution. Just 100 years
ago the United States had a severe
attack of ala grippe very much as
now. DIR. BENJAMIN Rush, one of the
Signers of the Declaration of Indepen-
dence and so eminent in the practice of
medicine as to be styled the Sydenham
of America, was inspired to write par
ticular account of the epidemic as it
came under his observation in Phila-
delpnia. AS his works are now anti
quated and rarely disturbed in the dust
of our libraries, some of his remarks
may have the freshness of novelty.
DR.. Rush saws the weather was cold
and without rain from the end of August
until October, 1889, when many men,
bers of the First congress, that had met
in New York, complained on arriving
in Philadelphia of colds, which they at
tributed To travelling by night in public
stages. But the malady spread so widely
and rapidly that it was soon recog-
niZed as the influenza. The symptoms
were hOarseness, sore throat, chills,
fever, sense of WEAKNESS, headaches,
universal sneezing (often mot less than
fifty times in a day''), pains in the
breast. sides and limbs and a distress
Ing cough. The fever seldom lasted
more than three or four days. but the
cough and other troublesome symptoms
sometimes persisted two or three weeks.
The disease affected both sexes alike,
but old people and children most fire.
Quently escaped it. Of the-fve-and-
pital only three felt sick. Persons
working in the open air, as sailors and
'longshoremen, had the maiady much
worse than the tradesmen who worked
within doors. A company of surveyors
in the eastern woods of PENNSYLVANIA
suffered severely. The Indians around
Niagara were affected with peculiar
force, and they ascribed their irritating
cough to witchcraft.
The epidemic most fatal on the
seashore of the United States. Thou
sands of people suffered in Philadel-
phia without being confined to their
houses, and DIR. Rush relates that "a per-
petual coughing was heard in every
street of the city. Buying and selling
were rendered tedious by the coughing
of the farmer and the citizen who met
in market places. 1t even rem
dered divine services scarcely
ineligible in the churches''
With few exceptions the malady
proved fatal only to old people and to
persons weakened by pulmonary COM
plants, but 1t carried off several hard
drinkers. Most of the deaths resulted
from nnnIImnnia Mon did
monopoly of the influenza, for horses,
dogs, and cats were observed to suffer
from it also. and lady was so disturbed
by the coughing of her dog that she gave
him ten drops of laudanum for several
nights. which perfectly composed him.
Six weeks the epidemic lasted, and
from New York and Philadelphia it
spread in all directions, and pervaded
every state of the Union in the course
of a few months. 1t made its way from
the United States to the West Indies,
and later to the Spanish settlements in
South America. The winter of 17S9-'9O
resembled the present one in being I'M
usually mild, and the cold weather did
not come until February and March.
The month of April, 1890, was variable
and rainy. and the showers that fell the
night of the nth were long remembered
by the citizens of Philadelphia in con-
nectiOn with the time of Benjamin
Franklin's death.
In the last week in April the influenza
broke out again in Philadelphia, coming
from New England and ravaging the in
termediate states on its way. SneeZing
was less common than in the preceding
fall, but pain in the eyeballs seemed to
be universal symptom. The epidemic
declined in June, 1890, but cOnvaleScence
from 1t was SLOW, land general Ian
guor appeared to pervade the citizens