Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1890-03-14
"LA GRIPPE"
A New York Doctor Discusses
the Disease.
What it Is, its Previous Hlsto-
ry and Treatment.

IL. NC ftasSc, promiacnt member oil
the Academy Of Medicine of Now York,
gave much interesting information
about tho epidemic, Ia grippe or influ-
cnza, of which he made q special tudy
in Europe as we'll rs in this country.
According to the Doctor, the first great
epidemic of the kind appeared in Eu-
rope in 1880.
"Why," said the reporter, az thought
there had been ono in Romc in tho year
90 of our ora"
"You refer, no doubt" replied tho
learned practitioner. ''to tho great
mortality mentioned by tho Greek
historian, Dion Cassius, rs having
tcr!or:zcd Rome in that year. 1t was
not the grip that causcl it, bu. the
stupid dcspotism of Emperor Domitian.
The Rcman population was assembled
in the amphi. hcatrc when heavy rain
fall came, DIR ncaing the crowds to the
marrow, AMI the tyrant compelled them
to remain to thee end of the games.
Thousands died from plcurisy, but not
from the grip.
by the way, let me say that the
word Ia grippe comes from tho Polish
word chrypka. which means hoarsc-
ness. 1t has been used for the last
fifty or sixty years in preference to the
Italian word influenza, and is now the
technical term adopted by the medical
profession all tho world over.
.'Since 1880 this disea,c has ANNOYED
Europe in 1891. 1875. 1853, 1880,
1S03-which was tho worst and the
most deadly of its inci-sion,-;n 1926,
1888 1887, 1916, 1885 and $4,000.
1t is fact worthy OF remark that
the actual epidemic in New York be-
gins often with the g'avcst symptoms.
1t is sudden in its attack and stril< es
right aaI left rich and poor, without
distinction of age, sex. bodily con-
sti'utioa, personal habits. c;c. 1t is
often accompanied by dclirium,
especially among children, and to 1t
must be ascribcl many of the suicides
which have taken place. It's duration
is from three or four day. to two
weeks, and more"
"To what is tho grip due, in your
opinion, doc :orl'
''To miasmatic condition Of the
atmosphere. The abnormal tcmpcra
turo of tho present winter has no more
to do with it than would prolonged
fogs."
as it contagious2'
"Yc', although there aro those who
think that it is not, on account of its
sudden appearance over largo tracts f
land"
'Do you think there is q special mi
crobc in tho cnsca'
''Yes, and | am positive that the
great physicians of 1850 aud 1851 wcro
right when they attributed the grip to
the presence of special micrococchi,
which develop very rapidly in the at
mospheric principle called ozone.
That principle is an hypothetical body,
generally adm itted as bolng the cause
of tue peculiar smell which accompan-
les electric discharges in the air, and of
the one which belongs to oxygen pro-
duccd under the influence of galvanic
current in water mixed with sulphuric
acid
''lf had time would certainly con-
tnue the researches made by the ccc-
brated Letzcrig, who, in 1880, declared
that the grip is mysotic affection of
the blood, caused by special microbes
which do not develop in tho form of
little chains, but in very irregular
groups"
Here the doctor took from his library
hvc or six medical works in which the
grip microbes were carefully repro
duced in cniar gcd drawings.
"Iave you any particular treatment
you might mentioni"
"Weli, in the case of grip not COM
plicatod with other diseases, l attend to
the symptoms at once, prescribing rest
and confinement to the house. Anti
pyrine and salicilatc of quninc arc of
excellent use. Bleeding must be prac-
tiscd in case pneumonia sets in. 1t is
an old remedy to which most doctors
return nowadays with success"
Swiss Peasants.
] will tell somn STORM, which ,ro,,,