The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1892-02-25
Written for The NArIosAL TRIBUNE /
WEALTH BINTS
For Old and Young.
-
BY FELIX L. OSWALD. N. q.
BY FELIX L. OSWALD. N. D.
CHAPTER CXXXIII.
IvsrnrcrIYE KpIDEMrcs.

y
auism. be.d that every epidemic indicates the
existence Of wide spread sanitary delGsions,
and one Of his Western disciples went so far as
to assert that every case og typhoid fever
proves that somebody ought to BE- hung"
The latter remedy might miss its purpose by
overcrowding our metropolitan cemeteries; but
Nature really enforces her lessons in much
the same way Z" Dig or die remained her
stern alternative till IOwlanders learned 20 i'm
prove the sanitary condition Of their bogs by
drainage. They could not woll help noticing
the fact that tho settlers Of upland regions en-
joyed a strange immunity from climatic dis
orders, and the first effect of that knowledge
was n growing conviction for the possession of
hilltop homes; but as building sites Of that
sort became more and more expensive. valley
dweller5 at last bit upon the expedeu6 Of re-
producing their neighbors' facilities fer surface
drainage, or even-as in the case Of Chicago
of raising their plains into a C0ncaye facsimile
of a hill
The belief in the preternatural cause and
cure Of scrO!ula was once spread all over Christ
ian Europe. but the fact that skin diseases was
most frequent in the vicinity Of Whitehall,
could at last not fail to open the eyes Of thou
sands TO the fact that the touch Of King was
after all, not the best cure for the Kings
Evil" even if travellers returning from the Far
East had not reported the existence Of non
scrOfulOu5 communities at great distance from
the court Of an orthodox pOtentate.
The international "inauenza5 Of the last
six years may have fulfilled a similar mission.
The belief in the connection Of catarrh and
cold weather was at first perhaps rather
strengthened by the circumstance that the
grippe" originated in the dominion Of the
Gar; but it, epidemic spread in the very dog
day weeks Of a warm Summer certainly seemed
a suspicious circumstance, and the true con-
neetion Of cause and effect must have dawned
/ upon the mind OF many travellers who visited
/ the bOor- novels Of the Russian Empire. In the
central region of European Russia fuel is get
| ting scarce enough to DO decidedly expensive.
and nowhere else on earth the economizng Of
| warm air at the expense Of its purity is carried
I to a more nauseOus degree. Besides, the Rus
/ sian mtjik is distinctivey house animal. The
/ pTesCriptive rights Of the nobility leave the
/ poor but little chance for outdoor sports; the
| Eastern slav is naturally an alfectiOuate and
/ social biped, and between family reunion and
tavern soirees spends a large part of his leisure
| hours indoors. Warmth, in high ATTITUDES, is
/ almost a synonym of comfort, and the over
| heated atmosphere Of crowded, ill-sWepG and
/ unventilated dens naturally becomes a hot-bed
/ for the development Of lung diseases. Domestic
cattle are forced to breathe similar air, and it
/ is a suggestive fact that 10 out Of 20 interua-
tiOnal cattle plaques were traced to a Russ an
origin. The Russians pretend to have dis
| covered a grippe cure ia sulphate OF quinine,
| which, in inhuenZl-strcken districts, is dis
| tributed as lavishly as wOrmWoOd in the ascetiC
converts Of the Middle Ages, where palatable
| articles Of food and drink We're considered
/ detrimental to the welfare Of the soul. Dry,
cold weather generally puts a stop to the cpl
demic spread of lung plaques, though citizen
of FL PasO succeeded in freeing his system from
the contagion by taking q long tramp through
the sun bi istered hills Of the Mexican border
land. But whether our cOuntrymen should
| prefer the frecZe-Out or sWeat-Out variety OF
grippe cure, they will not be apt to retain their
faith in the possibility of locking out lung dis
eases Like love, inhuenzas laugh at lock-
smiths, and find the largest number of victims
among persons Of sedentary occupations and
the tenants of stuffy city homes. cOgnate
circumstance in the pathology OF the grippe IS
its "clemency 10 minors" as q correspondent
of a St. Louis journal expresses it. Children,
who pass good deal Of their leisure in outdoor
sports, generally get off with a milder type OF
the epidemic or escape altogether, especially
in vacation time and in rural districts not over
stocked with stuhy schOol-hOuses.
/ A less explcable fact is the intermittence OF
lung epidemics. HippOcrates and Asclepiades
describe a contagious disease which in its
symptoms must have resembled the genuine
Russian grippe, aud which seems to have visited
southern Europe at least three times before the
beginning Of our chronological era. The hag-
ridden chroniclers of the early Middle Ages
| kept no sanitary records, but an undOubted
| grippe epidemic is reported to have visited
| Europe in 1854, and again in 1902. 10 returned
| about the end Of the 80 years war, aud after
that seems to have repeated its yis Is in periods
| varying from 10 to 40 years. each running a
cycle of some Is months, during which the
same localities were visited twice, and even
three times, but not Oftener, proving that Che
grippe should, after all, DO included ia the list
| of tho " "selElimited diseases"
The periodicity of its appearance is not easy
TO account for, and has its nearest analogOn in
the intermittence OF the "II-years locust y
| plague. The prOximate cause OF inHuenzas, as
of other contagious disorders is no doubt the
development Of a microscopic parasite. aud it is
Just possible that predispOslng conditiOns-such
as the accumulation OF special atmospheric i'm.
purities-may from time to time stimulate the
multiplication Of the grippe mIerObe to phe-
nomenal proportions.
Yellow fever epidemics originate on the east
coast of tropical America AS the grippe on JhC
Russian steppes, and the best field for the study
of it's pathology is perhaps the valley Of thC
Chagres River, on the IsthmusO of Panama. Mr.
| Arnauld tho CCmmi55dry- General OF TIE
French Canal Company, consulted a number o.
savants in the hope Of selecting come5tibles in
suring the health OF his employees. Tons o.
lime Juice, raspberry vinegar, pruHes, raisinS
| and ftriHe qreasNs "a sort Of graham four were
all precautions, and the contagiOn which else
where seems 20 depend upon special seasons and
circumstances appeared 10 hover on the iCns O
, the Laguna honda like q perennial masma
Ditchers furnished the largest quota OF victims
but cooks and laundrymsn, too. Succumbed al
a rate that obliged the contractors to recruit
their ranks in the slum5 OF Aspinwall and
Vera Cruz.
"Lifs insurance companies would decline {,
establish an agency in this country" writes
French physician who had passed several year.
in the canal camps; "still, experience Incline
me to believe iu the exie fence Of that PATHOLOGY
, cal phenix, an absolutely feyer-proof fellow
He is not apt to turn up in the form OF a negr,
Hercules, nor yet Ofa bOuy Spanish pill-ysnder
but moro likely OF an active little Italian pro
: vision poddIer or Yankee engineer, with his ir
repressible practical energy, for l cannot hell
thinking that some men are too busy TO b.
sick. They dodge danger by dint of speed
very much as a galOpng horse may safely ruI
the gantlet OF a vOiiey that would shatter
! whole cavaleade of less-Fapid quadrupeds.
have also noticed" /" he adds 4" that sort of ia
1 sFiv.fiva prantpnitinn vraru- those uaturlIi,