Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-21
Of Pittsburg, and Has a Very Tight
Hold Upon the People Who Live
and Do Their Business Here,
DOCTORS ARE AT THEIR WITS END
In Their Endeayor to Control a Disease
That Is Of Most Stub
born Nature.
TIE EAST END A GREAT SUFFERER.
work That Is Delayed to Great IL tent BY Sickness
Among Employees

"a rising temperature and a depressed
pulse" That meaus "the grip" provided
there are several other things connected
Herewith; as, for instance, an ache that may
strike you, either in the leg or in the head.
But "grip" it is, and there are many thou
sands of people in Pittsburg and vicinity
who are suffering from its effects. They are
wearied looking and they "feel bsd all
over"
Men of business go from their homes feel
ing chipper as the lark. When they leave
the cars, or their carriages, as the case may
be, they have "stiteh" in the back. If at
the same time there is bad cold, influenza
troubles, or kindred complaints, then, that
is the grip. The grip is no imaginary dis
ease, for there are SO many thousands OF
cases in Pittsburg that there are physicians
vino say that certain lines of their practice
have to be neglected in order that they may
attend to the immediate wants of those who
are sufferers from what they may term colds,
but that physicians know is well defined
disease.
No Part of the City Exempt.
There is no section of Pittsburg that seems
exempt from the grip. The center of the
city has its sufferers, and the East End has
more than its quota. Downtown hardly
seems to suffer so much as the outlying Sec
tons of the city. There is theory that the
working up of ground for the making of
new streets may have an effect upon the
health of people who live near by. At all
events along Fifth avenue where they are
tearing up the ground to make new streets
there is no doubt great deal of sickness of
this kind.
DR.. Joseph n. Dickson has pronounced
views upon the grip. His theory is that it
is germ of disease, and that it fourishes
in a temperature of from 45o to 700, its
best habitat, however, being in a moderate
temperature. Dampness of the atmosphere,
he said, coupled with just such tempers-
ture as Pittsburg has had during the winter,
made the conditions for the grip. He was
of opinion that the disease was now more
virulent than ever before.
"There is one popularity about the grip"
said DR.. Dickson, "and that is that one at
tack does not give immunity from another
attack. 1t is disease that will hunt out
the weak parts of the human frame. Where
muscles are weak it will find them; Just as
it will search out all the twigs of the nerves.
The symptoms, or at least some of them, are
a sufused face and eyes.
Some of the Sure Symptoms.
Again, and the main thing after all, is
rising tempe .ature and depressed pulse.
Those are symptoms that cannot be found in
any other disease. They arc contradictory,
and only in my practice with grip cases
have found them. / don't know that in
all my years of practice in this city have
seen SO many cases of this character. The
epidemic of grip as we had it here last win
ter everyone remembers. 1t is worse now.
$40 show how bad it is, want to tell you
that l have been compelled to give up surgi-
cal cases for fear that the patients would
suffer from the prevalent disease. And right
here want to say that the grip is caused
purely by atmospheric conditions. The
germs are Kept within the human reach BY
such weather as We have had. AS YOU
know, there has been but little sharp, crisp |
atmosphere. Clear weather, whether cold |
or warm. will send these germs up above. |
That's what Pittsburg wants, and when it |
comes there will be no grip.''
The effect OF the grip is seen and felt more
than in the resident districts. Many large
concerns are running short-handed owing to
the absence of their clerks. They are home
with the grip" That excuse goes with the
proprietor or the manager, for the chances |
are that he has been there himself, or may
be suffering from the same disagreeable dis
ease at the present time.
Out in the East End.
Common report SAYS that there are fully |
!, 900 cases in the East End. The East End |
covers a large space of ground and various |
classes of people, but the grip has made no
distinction. The physicians out there are
suffering, in proportion to their numbers, to
the same extent as the laymen, and it is no
uncommon thing for a sick call to be an
Ewered with the reply from the PHYSICIANS
servant that "the doctor has the grip"
Five of the members Of the Highland
avenue engine company are laid upswith
the disease, while classes in some of the pub
lie schools have been dismissed owing to the
sickness of the teachers. There is hardly a
place where many people meet through busi-
ness necessities that there is not noticeable
absence of some who would otherwise be
present. Some of the doctors in the East
End, while telling their patients that they
must not be alarmed at the prevalence of the
grip, can hardly move about themselves
and encourage their patients by remarking
that they themselves have only bad cold,
and that it will wear away shortly. They
sometimes are more sick than the people
who pay them for their services.
Sufferers on the southside.
Notwithstanding the high altitude of Al
lentown, Mt. Oliver and Mt Washington
the grip seems to have firm hold on the
people over there. A visit yesterday to the
hills showed a large number of cases. A
short list Of those who have been laid up
with an attack is as follows:
H. j. Alt and wife and Charles Alt and
wife, OF SO Washington avenue. j. G.
Chartener, so Washington avenue. the we'll
known druggist, had severe attack. ET.
Sehsffner, the real estate agent, 72 Wash
ington avenue. Jacob Smith and Patrick
Carlin, also of W Washington avenue, have had
severe attacks. Frank Kuss and wife and
two children are laid up. They also live on
Washington avenue. Theodore Swartling
and wife and three children, 88 WASH
ington avenue. William Krebs, OF
BeltzhOover borough, had a severe attack
but is recovering. His wife and three chill
dren are still laid up. George Shafer and
wife, of Beltzhoovor, also William Keilen
aud Sebastian Arnold, OF Allen avenue, are
sufferers.
Almost every house in Allentown has a
case Of the grip either light or severe. One
physician said he thought the windstorm of
last week was the cause of the
disease being SO prevalent, especially