The Washington herald., 1918-09-23


panic-stricken by the epidemic Of
Spanish influenza, which is sweep
ing toward the West and South like
a medieval plague and threatens to
overwhelm the whole country.
With the city depleted of doctors
and nurses by the war, those re-
naming are staggering under the
work of trying to keep the epidemic
under control.
People are being stricken down In
the streets, Offices. subway. theateTs
and shipyards. The hospitals are
crowded TO the limit. and under
strict quarantine to visitors.
over 5000 soldiers are down with
the disease at Camp Devens. while
civilian cases in the Boston district
number at least 10000.
As many as forty-three victims
have died in one night in Boston
alone. Whole families have been
wiped out
Nurses MobiiiIed.
The Boston Elevated Railway is
crippled by the sickness Of nearly
500 motormen and conductors. All
the local Red Cross nurses have
been mobilized.
The focus Of infection started
about three weeks ago among the
sailors housed on Commonwealth
Pier. and being so large, it was in
eyitable that the disease should es-
cape in the civil community.
Inclined at first to regard the cpl
demic as nothing worse than a Wis
itatiou of bad colds. Boston has now
bitterly learned that Spanish infiu-
enza is something far different
In medical terms. IL is an infectious
febrile disorder. due TO specific
bacillus. ITS CHIEF DANGER Is
THE RISK OF RELAPSE, WITH
SERIOUS COMPLICATIONS. GEN
ERALLY PNEUMONIA. 1t often
stimulates other diseases. Heart at
tacks, for instance, are common. not
from organic disease but from direct
poisoning of the heart muscles by
the influenza
Having been aroused TO the danger,
Boston is now taking extraordinary
precautions against the further
spread of infection. Big plscards
posted all, over the city threaten dire
penalties TO spitters. Telephone
transmitters are being disinfected.
Visiting at the prisons has been pro-
hibited. Public schools are being
closed down. over 500 pupils having
been stricken, Wellesley College
girls have been forbidden to visit
Boston. The nightly hops have been
stopped at the navy yard. The thea
tiers and movies are half empty.
Notices Posted.
DR.. Woodward, health commission
er, has sent out notices telling people
to keep away from crowds, TO keep
their feet warm and dry. not TO allow
another person to sneeze or cough
in their direction without protecting
their mouth and nostrils, to gargle
their throats three times a day. ana
to send for a doctor at the first sign
of a cold,
Bostonians are religiously obeying
this advice.
Thousands of factory and office
workers are walking TO work to avoid
the crows in the cars
More woolen stockings than ever be-
fore are to be seen on staid Boylston
street, and also fewer lowcut shirt
waists
Bulging out OF many pockets may be
seen bottles OF pet antiseptic gargles.
Nearly every other person keeps q
handkerchief TO his mouth on the
street.
So nervous is Boston that LET man
sneeze in the lobby of a hotel or on
the street. and the crowd scatters as
though bomb had been dropped from
the sky.
All kinds of cures and prophylactics
are being advertised. from dichlora-
mine to 'Doyer's powders. Patent
medicine quacks have discovered their
pet specific to be as good for Span
ish influenza as for rejuvenating men
over the draft ago or for charleyhorse.
Half a pint of whisky with ten
grains of quinine is a popular but ex-
peusive remedy.
While Boston's concern may. to a
stray visitor, seem at first little
humorous, the epidemic has deeply
tragic side. DR.. Frederick DeV.ing- .