The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-08
IT IS THE INFLUENZA
The Grip Has a Good Hold on the
People of Butte.
IT'S THE PREVAILING FAD
Accompanied by an Epidemic of Kicks,
Coughs, Sneezes and Cusses-Doc-
tors Are Kept Busy Say
ing Next"

/
This little dialogue can be heard on
| every street corner, in hotels, in sa
looms and wherever two or more per-
sons happen to be.
The "it they talk about is the grip
| influenza, they used to call it.
| Hundreds and hundreds of people in
| Butte are annoyed right now by the
prevailing fad it is here, mild in form,
however, but it's here, hence the kicks,
coughs, sneezes and cusses. The offices
Of the family physicians are besieged
by anxious patients bent upon learning
what to do in their cases.
'Oh, doctor, I've got it, what in
blazes will I do with it. I've cussed
and cuSsed and still it's persistent 1t
stays with me-
The doctor takes the patient in the
next room, prescribes. sends him out
through side door, and reappears at
the reception room door and says
Next" So it goes all during office
hours. Then he visits his home pa
tents to tell them that they are all
right and to follow his directions
strictly.
Yes. there is considerable grip in
town" said a prominent physician yes
terday to a Standard reporter ''Con-
siderable is good word, l guess. There
is wave of it in town, but there is no
cause for alarm as yet. However, we
might as well prepare for what is al
most sure to come from the East. You
know they are suffering from it in
severe form. OF course, there is no COM
parison between the epidemic of to-day
and that of 1890, when Butte was in
deed hard hit; then they did have the
la grippe. 1t was serious. AS it is now
there is no reason to fear the conse-
quences, judging from it's present hold
on the sufferers. If, however, we are
to face a plague similar to that now
sweeping the East, there may be a diff
ferent tale to tell. 1t is a fact that in
vasions come from the East-sometimes
from the far East, and it's course is
| always westward
| Every quarter of the globe has been
the scene of visitations of epidemic in
fuenza. More rapidly than any other
disease belonging to the same class does
1t traverse a region of country, and
hence within a remarkably brief period
OF time whole nation may suffer. AS
rule influenza develops into epidemic
proportions in the East, whence it
spreads with unparalleled rapidity in
westerly direction. How the contagion
enters the system has not been posi-
| lively determined, though it is proba bly
pitory tract; the predisposing causes
are few and unimportant, since all per-
sons are liable to the contagion. Age
has slight influence the period of
greatest susceptibility being from the
goth to the Both year. The very young
are less liable than older subjects and
| during an epidemic are apt to be af-
fected last, while old persons, particu-
larly if debilitated, are frequent suffer-
| ers.'
An ordinary bronchial catarrh, says
an author, may be properly regarded
as belonging to the peculiar processes of
the disease, but severe bronchitis, par
ticularly affecting the capillary tubes,
leading to neutrality-suspicious. is a
common and very serious complication
The symptoms of invasion--severe
chill high temperature. followed by the
| usual physical signs-are sudden in their
onset and lead rapidly to an extremely
| serious condition. The most frequent
symptom is perineuritis, which prob
ably causes much of the patients suf-
ferings. Delirium of most active form
sometimes appears and particularly
when certain other complications have
arisen, such as pneumonia, pericarditis,
etc. Cerebro-spinal meningitis occurs
as rare complication. Climatic ca
tarrhal affections are sometimes hard
to discriminate from sporadic cases of
influenza; typhoid fever, particularly in
| it's early stages, is often closely si1nu-
lated by influenza with intestinal symp-
toms. During certain epidemics many
grip patients suffer from intense head
ache, occiptal and frontal. rachialgia
| fever, prostration, delirium and stiff
ness of the muscles, with slight retrac-
ton of the head. There may be con-
vulsions and vomiting at the outset.
BY far the greater number of cases
The treatment is therefore, for the most
part an extremely simple one. The pa
tlentS are uncomfortable and anxious
easily fatigued and untitled for business
1t is best that they keep to the house
and, if willing. the bed, for the space
of two or three days. The diet should
be restricted to a few simple and easily
| digested dishes. Meat should be avoid
ed. The common custom of taking hot
beef tea is a bad one; it often increases
| the headache and languor. Moderate
quantities of cold drinks may be taken.
The fruit syrups, lemonade, raspberry
vinegar, a weak solution of citrate of
potash or Of cream of tartar, and bar
ley water with lemon are useful In the
mild cases stimulants are not necessary
| In all cases the amount of fluid taken
should be moderate. Quinine in mod
| crate doses should be taken from the
outset. The head pains are not in
creased by it. Dovers powder, if we'll
| borne, should be administered at night
Some form of opiate may be required,
| even in mild cases. to counterfeit wake
fulness Choral is inadmissable as
hypnotic by reason of its depressing eff
| feet upon the heart.
An author makes this startling dis
| closure:
| infectious influenza, although it had
almost been forgotten until it broke out
| in 1SS9-90. was very fatal during the
middle ages. having, it is said, in 1850.
| killed 5000 persons in Rome, and in 1850
| attacked $4,000 people in St. Petersburg
| in a single night. 1t is affirmed to be
| endemic in the neighborhood of ST.
| Petersburg, and in September, 1889, it
| began rapidly to advance from the old
| centers in Russia, reaching Paris by the
26th of November, and thence spreading
over the whole civilized world. We be-
| lieve it to be contagious. 1t travels
especially along lines of water or rail-
road connections, and has been noted
both in Paris and in Philadelphia to