The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-10-04
INFLUENZA
It's History, Symptoms and Methods of
Treatment

il from the first case Difficulties in
preventing the spread of Infection are
tdue to (l) the shortness of the period
of incubation, ~ the disease being in
fictitious in the earliest stages before
the nature of the illness is recognized;
(3) the milder varieties being equally
infectious with the severer attacks, and
the patient often going to work and
spreading the infection, az the dag
nosis often being difficult, influenza be-
ing possibly confused with ordinary
catarrhal attacks. Domestic animals
seem to be free from any suspicion of
being liable to human influenza. San
itary conditions other than overcrowd-
ing do not appear to exercise any in
fluence on the spread of influenza.
Influenza has been shown to be an
acute specific fever having nothing
whatever to do with a "bad cold. -
There may be some inflammation of the
respiratory passages, and then symp-
toms of catarrh are present, but that
is not necessarily the ease, and in
some epidemics such symptoms are ex-
ceptional. This had been recognized by
various writer's before the 1889 vista
ton. but it had not been generally re-
allied, as il has been since, and some
| medical authorities, who persisted in re-
garding influenza as especially Ca
| tarrhal affection, were chiefly to
blame for widespread and tenacious
| popular fallacy.
Some individuals appear to be total
! Nv immune; others take the disease
! over and over again, deriving no i'm
munity, but apparently greater suscep-
tibility from previous attacks.
It's Symptoms.
The chief symptoms of influenza are
GOODNESS along the back, with shivering,
which may continue off and on for two
or three days; severe pain IN the head
and eyes, often with tenderness in the
eyes and pain in moving them; pains
in the ears; pains in the small of the
back; pains in the limbs, for the most
part in the feshy portions, but also
in the bones and joints, and even in the
fingers and toes, and febrile tempera
ture, which may in the early period rise
to 1914 or l05 +. At the same time the
patient feels excessively i'll and pros
trate, is apt to suffer from nausea OF
sickness and diarrhoea, and is for the
most part restless, especially in the
ease of children and those of advanced
age. In ordinary mild eases the above
symptoms are the only important ones
which present themselves and the pa
tient NAV recover in the course of three
or four DAYS. He may have it SO mild
ly that, although feeling i'll, he is abb,
TO go about his ordinary work. In some
cases the patients have additional!
some drvness or soreness of the throat
or some stiffness and discharge from
the nose which may be accompanied b,
slight bleeding And in some cases TO
the most part in the course of fey
! DAYS, and at a time when the patien
4 seems TO be convalescent, he begins I
G suffer from Wheeling in the chest
n cough, and perhaps a little shortnes
{. of breath, and before long spits mucu
i in which are contained pellets streake
: or tinged with blood. Another eompl
cation is diarrhoea. Another is rose
! olous spotty rash. Influenza is by n
Il means necessarily attended with tn
: catarrhal symptoms which the geners
: public have been taught to regard q
{ it's distinctive signs, and in yer
7 large proportion of eases no catarrh:
!, condition whatever becomes develope
7 at any time.
9 Several writer's have distinguish
. four main varieties of the disease: q
Il nervous, co gastro-intestinal, 30 r
= spiratory. "a febrle. Influenza stiml
lates other diseases Many forms al
! of TYPHOID. or comatose types, Cardis
- attacks arc common not from organ
disease but from the direct poisonin
!, of the heart muscles by influenza
Perhaps the most marked feature {
infuenza is the prolonged debility ar
- nervous depression that frequently fc
i low an attack Other common afte
~ effects are neuralgia, dyspepsia, insor
\. MIA, weakness of special senses, a
II dominal pains, sore throat, rheumatis
rr and muscular weakness, and pneumoni
In This affection must be regarded as
in complication rather than an integI
IN part of the illness.
n Tie deaths directly attributed to i
ld fluenza are few in proportion to t
in number of cases In the milder fori
of it offers hardly any danger to life
r: reasonable care be taken but in t
Iic severer forms it is an often fatal d
ease.
If. The infectious character of infuen
ch having been determined, the sick sher
IL be separated from the healthy II
IRE is especially important in the case
re- first attacks in n locality or a hou
in hold The sputa of the sick shou
he especially in the acute stage of
err disease be received into vessels q
err, tanning disinfeetants. Infected ar
up. eles and room should be cleansed a
ses disinfected. A piece of gauze or
IN linen mi ght be used to gather the s.
or tum and then burned. When infuer
hg threatens, unnecessary assemblages
. persons should be avoided. Buildil
So: and rooms lin which many people n
! essarily congregate should be eiicie
" aerated and eleansed during the