Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1899-01-05
The Grin and n Cold.

To the EDITOR or the new 1OIh liheS'
In your issue of December 10Th, the
question is asked in one of your editorial
columns: How is man TO know Whether
he has caught an everyday colo, ana
may go out doing his work without HARM
or the gripg'-i. e., epidemic influenza,
when he must stay in and probably SEND
for his doctor.
Having seen and treated few hundred
cases and suffered from the grip myself,
permit me TO try and answer your ques-
tier. When the grips about In epidemic
form, q patient taken with an acute
cid slight or severe, but accompanied
by considerable ache In his limbs, joints,
ana body, and by fever, may safely
diagnose his own case as grip and take
TO his bed a: once. lie has the catarrhal,
the usual form Of grip. Another patient
may have an attack OF prostration, fever,
and neuralgias alone, without much
catarrh, in epidemic times, he also has
the grip; the nervous form. which Is
not very rare. And third one may be
taken with the same general symptoms,
but instead OF cold in his head and
chest, he will have acute disturbances Of
stomach and bowels In the form Of
nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea; that
represents the gastro-intestinal form OF
grip, rarely met with. What I have said
now holds good in times OF epidemic
grip, but is also true for sporadic cases,
as they may, and do, occur between one
epidemic and another The various cpl
denies of grip have come and come
again, stretching over a period Of ten or
twenty years at various times.
During an epidemic of influenza there
| are all sorts of light and severe cases, OF
! course, the same as in other epidemic
| diseases. but they all represent an infec-
| tious disease produced by bacillus
| which has been demonstrated and cult
waited, and is recognized just as well as
the comma-bacilus of Asiatic cholera.
The grip is communicable from person TO
person; If yeu live in the same room with
q grip patient, or occupy one vacated by
such patient, and not having been disin-
| fected. you are apt to get it. and proba-
! bly, will, il your general condition is below
its normal level This happened to me last
spring when, in going to Europe, l was
taken with severe grip on the eighth day
out. 1t appeared that my cabin was pre-
viously occupied by a party known tc
have had symptoms Of influenza as he
was coming over from the other side.
Though not in any manner as destruc-
tive to life as cholera, yet epidemic in
fiuenza counts its dead In large cities by
many hundreds during one Of its courses
Unfortunately, there is no lasting i'm
munity created by having had an attack
but a predisposition 10 get another at an
other time remains. and not infrequentlS
after effects are left such as neurasthe
MIA, neuralgias, chronic catarrh, and gen
eral debility, the recovery from which ma,
take many months.
That through momentary contact will
an infected person or habitation tn
disease may be contracted is contrary {,
my observations. and we may, withou
fear Of being infected, Shake hands witt
a friend who has just had it.
BY way OF comparison, scarlatina an,
whooping cough are eminently contagious
the shortest time of exposure 20 IN
Source of infection being sufficient. an,
it is even so with typhus and the buboni
plague. In proclaiming epidemic influenz
a contagious disease the health authori
ties are correct from a scientific point o
view, but for practical purposes the wor
communicable" would have met, be
lieve, all indications for preoautionar
measures, and not excited or worried tn
public mind with relation TO a disorde
the spread of which is not as yet prevent
able. LEONARD WEBER. NJ. d.
! New York December % 1893