The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1890-02-15
HISTORY o. THE INFLU ENZA.

mentioned by the founder OF medical
science four hundred years before
the commencement Of the Christian
era in one of the sixty trestises
which he bequeathed TO posterity:
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
Influence" of the stars. In France
it is known by the more expressive
title Of La Grippe. 1t was coniect-
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 /
efiuvia, which predispose the bodies
Of men 10 some form Of disease
And this hypothesis derives certain
amount of support from the fact that
the deadly epidemics OF tire 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
lystricken 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 14S5 until January 1856, 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 overhowed their banks and
spread great devastation The sec
ond visitation. in 1866, was herald
| ed by wet summer, severe winter.
an eruption of Nesuvius. mould spots
in France. a murrain among the
cattle in Germany. and a violent
storm in England which lasted for
IL days. 4 wet summer and earth
| QuakeS IN Sua5Ia and Spain were the
precursors of the third visitation in
1511. That OF 1873 was the sequence
of cold spring, a moist summer
with fogs. warm winter. failure
Of the crops and inundations There
were an earthquake in Upper Italy.
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
1851, was preceded by floods and
storms, triple rainbows, mock suns
and moons, observed in many parts
of Europe. mould spots, an ezuber-
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 il
proved fatal to a great number OF
persons. In 1403 its ravages We're
SO serious that the law courts had to
be closed In consequence. II reap
peared in AL and again in l414
but it was then known as the "co-
queluche," because persons suffering
from it were recommended to enyeloE
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. It prevailed in 1910. in
1857, III 1877; and in 1880. The in
fluenza of 1910 manifested itself after
cold and particularly tempestuou:
winter, accompanied by frequent
earthquakes. by which nearly the
whole of northern and central Italy
was shaken. The ordinary catarrha
symptoms of the malady were &C
compsnied by giddiness and head
ache, followed by severe rheumatic
} pains, during which an inflammation!
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 oi
purgatives and blood letting. DR.
Sangrados method Of treatment wa:
almost universally practised in the
sixteenth century on the continent Of
Europe, where unhappily, it had not
died out when Camille Cavour wa:
stretched upon a bed of sickness les:
than thirty years ago.
In 1901 the same, malady spread
rapidly over France, Italy. Germany
and Holland. 1t attacked young anC
old, rich and poor: and when it en-
tered a household it usually pros
trated every member of it. 1t wa:
!, 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. ana carried off 5000 per
sons in Delft alone. The influence
epidemic of 1880 was exceedingly
severe. In the mother country it wa:
preceded by earthquakes. Myriad:
of insects, popularity believed to have
risen out of the earth, filed the air
and contemporary chroniclers men
ton that In Kent and the marshe:
of Essex was a sore plague Of strange
mice, suddenly covering the earth
and gnawing the grass roots" 4
century and half elapsed before
the occurrence of another serious
outbreak Of the malady. 1t first ex
hibited itself at the beginning of the
winter of 1872, in the north Of Ger