The evening times., 1898-12-20
In THE GRIM AND GRISLY
GRASP 0F "LA GRIPPE
MILD FORM PREVALENT HERE
Washington Apparently Besieged by an
Epidemic of the Very Bother
some Disease.

Washington Apparently Besieged by
Epidemic of the Very Bother
some Disease.
For the first time in about three years
an epidemic of Influenza or grip, is pre-
vailing in Washington. 1t started severa.
weeks ago and has spread so rapidly that
now large number of people are suf-
fering from its disaereeable attacks.
In many instances almost entire families
are in bed or housed with it, At schools,
places of public gatherings, in business
and professional circles in fact, in every
walk of life, they have the grip or are just
recovering from it, or are telling of those
they know who have 1t. A girl student at
one OF the schools told schoolmates yes
terday that at the clearinghouse where
she is boarding twenty persons were suf-
1erlng from the malady
prominent physicians say, however, that
the prevalent form is a mild form of in
iiuehza, ana that there is no occasion for
alarm. Washingtonians are not the only
sic.iihs' they say, but the epidemic is gen.
eral throughout the country and is equal
~ as bad in Baltimore, PHILADELPHIA and
New York. One physician said that II was
not the severe Russian influenza, but an
aggravated type of a common character
IL was contagious, he said. and spread
faploiy, and while drugs might help to re-
heVe the suffering the best cure was a
week spent in bed
~ WeI-knoWn professor of the faculty
OF local medical college, said TO Times
reporter today:
~ would not be well for people to even
tliihk OF 1t as serious he said. ITO be
gong ABOUT with the thought coupled with
rear ol getting it would reduce the power
ol resistance and make folks more sus-
ceptloie. 1t IS contagious, and is carried
from one to another. Those most sus
cept1Dle are its first victims such as old
persons, living on borrowed time and la
bic to be called upon at any minute to give
up the loan, epidemic or not Others have
stronger resistance and it is slow in over
coming them, while many, by reason of
health and strength, having inward re-
sistance, assisted by care and good judg-
ment, are able TO fight it off entirely.
People III prisons, asylums and converts
escape from 1t, though, if it once gets in
side, it viii spread TO all the inmates not
strong enough to resist.
"All infectious diseases are of a milder
form in this country than in European
countries, which, l think, is because of
our good, substantial way OF living
The celebrated Prof. Northnagel, of
Vienna, who made special study of the
grip, gave a report of ii in January 1892
which was not cheering. He held that the
malady was miasmatic, infectious and
contagious. and said that no specific agen-
cy for the cure was known, though the
sufferer from it might be relieved some
what by various drugs.
In a paper read by DR.. r. SisIey before
the medical officers in London about Feb
Tuary !. 1892. on influenza and Preven-
tion' he said:
LAS a contagion it is proved beyond
doubt that the lrst-case of influenza in a
town is often a patient who came from
an infected place Isolated cases precede
an epidemic. and it spreads along the line
of human intercourse. Isolated persons,
such as prisoners and inmates of asylums
and converts. often escape influenza. The
number affected in an epidemic increases
till a maximum is reached and then de-
clines. as in the case with all contagious
Diseases