Morning journal and courier., 1891-04-22
A QUEER DISEASE,
Even the Doctors Don't Know What
10 Make of H.

La grippe, or influenza, the one a French
and the other an italian word, is one of
the diseases which still remain a mystery
to doctors, an opprobium medicum. For
centuries it has been fatal visitant in
populous quarters of the globe, and while
not SO deadly and terrible as some of the
earlier epidemics chronicled in medical
history, still it leaves devastation in its
path wherever it goes, with wrecked con-
stitutions that fall an easy prey to the
commoner everyday disorders which at
tack them subsequently,
The cause of influenza is still wholly
matter of speculation, but probably it is
disorder produced by some species of mi
mute germ floating in the air and assailing
humanity through the channels of respi-
ration. There are hundreds of varieties
of these microbes, many of which are
known with absolute certainty to give rise
to the maladies familiar to us as conta-
gious and infectious diseases Such bac-
terra are so small that, as has been said, a
thousand of them could march abreast
through hole picke ] by fine needle in
piece of paper. 1t is no wonder then that
particular species difficult to discover,
isolate and study. Furthermore, the sci
ence of bacteriology has much more re-
cent development than the last invasion of
influenza preceding that of 1890; and ex-
pert microscopists are only beginning to
investigate into the microbic origin of this
disease. 1t will be some years before any
definite scientific knowledge concerning it
is likely to be obtained, for the nicely and
accuracy required in such studies demand
also a long period of time. Meanwhile
,l, I'll arl unanl-c will
time to time to announce pseudo-discoyer
les, in order to reap their harvest of pro-
fits from deluded and suffering victims
Supposing the germ theory of the grip
to be true, and there can scarcely by any
doubt of this, we may imagine that in
some remote corner of the world, usually
Asia, the hotbed of epidemics, the specific
germs of influenza took their rise and
were blown in vast numbers, like the pol
len of Towering plants, over wide areas,
even over Europe and TO these American
shores. All men inhaled them more or
less but in all men tissues do not present
an equally favorable soil for their growth
and proliferation; for, as with other germ
diseases, perfectly healthy soil seems un
favorable for their development. a man
in perfect health is almost, though not
wholly antiseptic. Those with constitu-
tions debilitated by disease or age or deli
cate by inheritance, easiest succumb to the
encroachments of the parasites. Hence
there is great variety in the symptoms.
The air passages are usually first and
sometimes solely affected. Inflammation
is lighted up in the mucous membranes of
the nose, throat, larynx, traches and bron-
chial tubes. If the germs enter the blood
there is high fever, nervous depression,
pains in various parts, and infiammatory
changes may even invade more important
tissues, such as the membranes of the
brain, the pleura, the pericardium and the
peritoneum. The effects of the poison
upon the nervous system ale especially
profound. There may be every degree of
the affection, from the mildest cold in the
head to the deadly involvement of vital
organs.
We do not know why there should be SO
virulent an outbreak this year in some
| places. Perhaps the visitation of 1890,
| which destroyed so many and left others
with frail constitutions, has rendered
many individuals more vulnerable to q
second sertie of the invisible foe. Posi-
bly, climatic and atmospheric conditions
have been such that the germs have been
multiplied and strengthened in some local
| tiles and diminished and weakened in 9TH
| ers Certain it is tina: while the influenza
has prevailed everywhere this winter in
| the United States, north, south, east and
west, to greater or less extent, there
have been much more serious outbreaks in
some of the northern and western cities
Any reason given for this must of neces-
| sity be altogether theoretical.
1t is obvious that, ignorant of the actu-
al cause of the disorder, physicians are
absolutely at loss what to do TO combat
| it. They can only treat the symptoms as
they arise and do the best they can to sus-
tain the strength of the patient. For the
present we can rely only upon such meth
DDS, and it would be foolish and absurd to
commend one remedy above another in q
disorder which no one as yet understands.
Under the circumstances one can readily
see why what one physician heartily ap-
proves as therapeutic agent in infiuenza
is decried by another as rank poison, the
truth being that one knows as little about
the matter as the other. 1t may be taken
as an axiom that physicians always agree
when they are confronted with scientific
facts; they differ only as regards the un
known. The real lesson to be learned i!
prevention. Keep the body in good health
by proper attention to hygienic measures
such as exercise, baths, diet and the like
The influenza will make but futile on
slaught upon such Notifications.