Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-08-12

vxTASHINGTON, D. c., Aug. 3.-If you
w hope to keep your health this autumn
get yourself into the pink OF physical
condition. For the flu is going to hit us
again, and the amount of damage it will do
depends largely upon how we'll we prepare
for it. This is the cheering message Of Dr..
Otto Geier, Of Cincinnati, secretary OF the
American Medical Association.
Already the visitation of the most dramatic
and destructive plague of modern times is be-
ginning to grow dim in the memories of
many people, and this despite the fact that
there are reminders of it everywhere. Nearly
everyone has friend who is not able to work
as he did before he got the flu. Nearly every
one who has travelled during the past year,
and inquired for old friends has heard again
and again the depressing words, The died of
the flu!'
Nearly everyone has noticed, too, the sur
prisng number Of women with snort mar.
Some of these are afflicted with artistic incli-
nations, but most of them gave up their
GROWING glory reluctantly enough after hav-
ing the flu. Indeed, in some sections the hu
is said to have created quite vogue for
bobbed hair.
Short hair is the least serious of the after
effects of influenza. Dr.. Geier says that 1t
will add forty per cent to the mortality rate
for the next five years. This means that forty
ner cent more people will die than would have
died had there been no flu. They will die be-
cause this strangely weakening disease mas
Ln6lr NA0OS"SSS'
These fearful after-affects of the flu, even
moro than the number of lives it destroys at
once make it national calamity winch we
can ill afford to pass through again. me
country is strewn with men who thought that
thew we're in the prime and who got over the
fiji onlv to, find that they were old ana ABOUT
done: with women who can no longer oe
wives or mothers since they had the nu' anu
with children whose growth has been cnecked'
One or two more winters with such epldemlcs'
and the United States will have SUFFERED a.
most as much loss of human power as some
European countries did through the war
In support of his claims that the influenza
endemic will recur, DR.. Geier cites the record
of the nearly allied disease of la grippe which
appeared in epidemic form IN 1879. IL ala
not reach it's peak until 1901, and two years
after that it required and destroyed thou
sands of lives. We have had two other cpl
denies of grippe or influenza, one in 1857 and
the other in 1895, and both OF these showed
the same recurrent quality.
In the face of this literal certainty that we
will have to combat influenza again next year,
we are totally unprepared to do SO. Medical
science knows little more about influenza to-
day than it did a year ago when the scrouge
was spreading like prairie fire over all the
world. For this reason, the doctors are maxi
ing elaborate and extensive research into the
cause and effect of the disease in order to try
tn he better prepared for the next outbreak
Medical men are hopeful of discovering
sneciic remedy for the flu as was done IN the
cases of yellow fever, diphtheria and typhus
fever.
Among the medical men Of this country
making studies of the flu are Dr. William II.
park. famous bacteriologist and head or the
bureau of laboratories of the department OIL
health in New York; DR.. John F. Anderson,
former director of the hygiene laboratory or