The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1890-01-11
THE GRIPPE"
A Description of its Past Raw ages.
From the Nep York W0rid.l

From the Nep York Worldl
According to the best authorities the
| disease has been known by various names,
catarrhal fever, contagious catarrhal fe-
yer, dandy fever, coquette, la grippe and
others. Among the English, as the dis,
ease suggested nothing, it was called an
epidemic cold. The Germans, who al
ways find some fancied resemblance a.
mong different diseases, and there being
disease epizootic in character affecting
sheep, have conferred the name of schaff-
husten and sbaffkrankheit upon it.
In addition to these names the cough
which accompanies the attack, due to the |
disturbance OF the respiratory organs, re
sembles the growing Of a cock, in conse- |
quence of which it was named hnhnerweh |
(chicken's disease, whooping cough and |
ziep, and is the same disease among |
chickens which is known in this country |
as pip. La grippe is said to be derived |
from the Polish word ''grypka." 1t is |
more likely, however, that it's origin is |
from the word "agripper," to seize.
How the Term Influenza Arose. |
Influenza is term which originated y
with the Italians, their belief being ths<
the disease was due to tho influence
the stars or from a Specification -
word indicating something tra1 M 81
ephemeral; the name was =
fashiona6is sla. se.s-tAeel Hipessz les
is said to have referred to it, but gives
no exact description of the disease in his
writings. Diodorus Siculus recorded an
outbreak in the Athenian army in Sicily
during the year 415 B. c., which is sup
posed from it's description to be influenza,
During the ninth century several epidem-
les of catarrhal fever were recorded.
In s27 cough spread very rapidly, af-
fecting a great many, which was suppl
posed to have been the affection in ques
ton. In Italy, in the year SIG there
occurred an epidemic similar in character,
which spread over all Europe with great
rapidity. During this epidemic it is
claimed that dogs and birds suffered with
an affection having symptoms not unlike
those occurring in man. A fever, of
which the chief symptom was cough, 90,
CURED as general epidemic throughout
Germany and France in the year 976. |
Until the year 1873 no further epidemic |
is noted; then widespread affection, of |
which the symptoms were principally ca
tarrhal; ragged throughout the entire Eu- |
ropean continent. Minor epidemics are |
recorded as having occurred from 1889 to |
1899, also during the fourteenth century. |
In the writings of Aitken it is found that |
so very fatal was the prevalence of the |
disease in Frace that from the years 1911 |
to 1908 the mortality was SO great it ne |
,essitated the closing of the courts of law |
in Paris in consequence of the deaths |
which occurred.
La Grippe In Ireland.
In the Canals of the Four Masters"
influenza is mentioned as having pre-
vailed in Ireland during the fourteenth |
century. A similar disease is referred to |
in the early Gaelic manuscripts under the |
name of creatan (creat, the chest). The |
first epidemic which occurred in Great |
Britain of which we have any very aocur- |
ate description is the one of the year |
1910. The disease travelled from Malta |
and infested first Sicily, then Italy, Spain
and Portugal, when it crossed the Alps |
into Hungary and Germany, reaching as
far as the Baltic sea and extending |
thence westward into France and the |
British Isles.
Its tract extended over entire Europe |
from the southeast to the north west, and |
| it is claimed that not single family es
| capped it's ravages. Its symptoms were |
similar to those witnessed to day, viz, |
great pain in the head, difficult breath
ing, stupor. loss of strength and appetite,
| nervousness and retchings from violent
tearing cough. During this epidemic
| none died except children. In 1867 there
occurred an epidemic which started west
ward from Asia and spread over entire
| Europe; it then crossed the Atlantic
| Ocean and appeared in America, the af
lection occurring in England after an un-
usually rainy season. The attack was
characterized by catarrhal affections of
the pulmonary and abdominal mucous
membranes, sneezing and coughing, diff
ficulty of breathing, with fever, and
pains which were usually referred to the
sides. The entire population of Nismes
| fell ill of it on the same day.
| A Fatal Epidemic.
| This epidemic was an extremely fatal
one. In the small town of Mantua Car
pentaria, which is near Madrid the disease
broke out in the middle of August, and
200 persons, who were bled aud purged-
the prevailing treatment at that time-all
died. In 1853, in Delft, the disease car
ried off 5000 OF the poor.
A very great epidemic of influenza &C.
CURED in 1880. From Constantinople
and Venice it overran Hungary and Ger
many, aud reached the furthest regions
of Norway, Sweden and Russia. 1t ex-
tended into England and prevailed du
ring August and September there; about
the same time in Italy, and the entire |
summer in Spain. Its average duration |
| elsewhere was about six weeks
DR.. Short, a writer of that period, |
, states that "few died except those that
were let blood of or had uusound viscera.,
| Two thousand died of it in Rome, accord |