The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1900-04-12
MICROBE OF THE GRIP.
How That Dreaded Affection II
Transported from One Point
to Another.

lnnuenZa, tnaJ queer ana ugly
word with which the grip clothed it.
self in 1902, when it was raging in Italy,
was first, and, unfortunately, brought
into the medical vocabulary by Prof.
HuXham. 1t is true that he was never
very proud of his invention, and up to
a comparatively recent date doctors
and patients continued to use the good
old word grip invented in the last
century by Sauvages de Montpelier,
doubtless to depict the peculiar express
sion of countenance which belongs to
those who are unlucky enough to con-
tract the disease.
without going into the details of a
pathological chapter on the subject,
it may be necessary to call attention to
the fact that the word grippe or in
iiuenza' is too often carelessly or erro-
neously employed. OF course, for a
doctor the grip, strictly speaking, is
difficult to diagnose at its commence
ment, and it often happeNs that the
medical man cannot tell whether he is
dealing with a catarrhal or hay fever,
or with serious affection like angina,
smallpox or typhoid. But neverthe-
less, the grip has an appearance pc
culiar to itself, which, at a given mo-
ment,. outside of all archaeological
examination, at best, vague in the be-
ginning, facilitates its diagnosis.
But to attempt to describe the ga
rious and capricious symptoms of the
grip outside of medical literature,
properly speaking would be to attempt
the impossible. Sometimes it starts
with a furious attack, and sometimes
it begins with little indispositions that
| last three or four days. With the
grip all sorts of forms are possible.
But there are three forms which are
noteworthy: First, the nervous form,
with it's terrible headaches, neuralgia,
lumbago and alternatives of physical
and mental depression, followed by
excitement that later reaches delirium;
secondly, the respiratory form which
localizes itself in one of several of the
organs, the nose, the pharynx, the
larynX, the trachea, the bronchial
tubes and the lungs (indeed it may
spread itself through them alD; third
ly, the digestive form, sometimes ac-
cessory, but more frequent and more
tenacious than people commonly be-
Iieve it to be, and reaching from simple
gastric trouble to the most intense
gastro-intestinal manifestations.
"Now, although the delimitation of
these three forms is somewhat theo-
retical, the forms themselves belong TO
three particular states; the cardiac
symptoms which may follow pull
monary troubles, or exist by them
selves in an organ already predisposed;
urinal, sensorial and cutaneous
troubles, accompanied by fever that
may manifest all sorts of caprices.
Therefore it is easy to see that the
grip, having all the recesses of the
organism at its disposal, may be mild
in one case and dangerous in another.
1t attacks every organ and presents it.
self in all sorts of forms. Neverthe-
own seal which enables the medical
man to recognize it in spite of all its
fantastic DISCUSSES. Like all infections,
it goes straight for the predisposed or
gan. Moreover, the grip is essentially
epidemic and contagious, but in most
cases it is not very serious disease, il
the patient is prudent and the doctor
vigilant."
DR.. L. Gaze introduces us to the
microbe of the grip. The grip. or in
fluenza." he says, lis due to a wander
ing microbe, which, like that of the
cholera, travels on land and sea. II
November last this redoubtable insect
was in Turkey. where its presence was
noted scientifically. 1t travelled along
the great lines of commerce and ar
rived at several points of the old and
new world. 1t was Prof. Robert Pfeif-
fer, of Berlin, who discovered the ba-
cillusin 1892. and since then it is kept in
reserve in laboratory cultures, like its
relatives of tuberculosis, typhus. ma
laria, hydrophobia and yellow fever
The microbe enters the human system
through the nose and mouth. The
germ in form looks little like an egg,
and it is covered by she'll The in
terror is composed of a cellular white
mass, like the white of an egg, and in
the center of this is the protoplasm,
which can be compared to the yolk of
an egg. Once in the human body. the
bacillus settles down to business and
spreads abroad the liquid poison which
causes influenza. 1t is not the germ
which produces the malady, but the
toxic matter which emanates from it.
THE bacillus of the influenza has
neither legs nor wings, and, although
it can't move along of its own accord,
it is constantly travelling. How does
it travel? 1t attaches itself to moving
bodies of all kinds. Certainly the germ
may sometimes be carried along in the
wind, but in most cases it reaches the
human body by contagion. Once in
stalled there. it increases and multi
plies enormously and III very short
time"