Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1920-11-24
hit INFLUENZA
ATITS SOURCE
Dr.. Simon Flexner Proposes
Combating Dread Disease
al Its Origin.
EASTERN EUROPE PLAGUE SPOT
Many Recorded Epidennics Shown to
Have Emanated From That Area
Disease Claims More Victims
Than European War.

New York-According to DR.. Simon |
FIexner, Director Of Laboratories of !
the Rockefeller Institute for Medical |
Research. further occurrences of the |
influenza epidemic can be prevented !
only by wiping out the disease at its
source. In a recent address before the |
Congress of American Physicians and
Surgeons, later published by the Amerl-
can Medical Association, he outlined
the path of the disease through Its
different stages.
There are excellent reasons for re-
garding the endemic home of influenza
to be Eastern Europe" he said. "and
in particular the border regions be-
tween Russia and Turkestan. Many
recorded epidemcs have been shown
more or less clearly to emanate from
that area, while the epidemics of re-
cent history have been traced there
with a high degree of cOnclusiveneSS.
From this Eastern home at intervals
of two or three decades, migrating
endemic influenza begins, moving east
ward and westward, with the greater
velocity in the latter direction.
Uncanny in Action.
TO me caSu1l observer lHSlc 10
uncanny in the way fnfiu-
- down its victims. While
,.nxr epIdemics proceed from bad to
worse. with at least progressive in
| creaseS in intensity. influenza seems to
overwhelm communities over even wild
err stretches of territory as by single,
| stupendOus blow While in the one
case the gradually accelerating rate of
speed of extension may be taken to
| indicate personal conveyance of the
J provoking micrO-Organism, in the other
| the sudden wide onset appears the
! very negation of personal communities.
ton.
| Hence the invoking of mysterious
| Influences. the revival of the notion Of
miasrn and similar agencies, to account
| for this phenomenon. Indeed. the pub
! lie mind in general lends itself readily
! to such formless concepts, for the rea-
son that there still resides in the mass
! of the people, even in the more en-
| lghtened countries. q lsrge uneEadi-
! Gated residue of superstition regard
ing disease One does not need to look
J far or dig deep in order, to uncover
! the source of this superstition. We
have only recently emerged from 8
past in which knowledge of the origin
| of disease was scant, and such views
as were commonly held and exploited
! were mostly fallacious. 1t is, indeed.
very recently, if the transformation
Il can he said TO be perfect even now.
that the medical profession as q whole
has been completely emancipated All
Go tnr
of remote Importance only, since in
the end the successful imposition OF
II sanitary regulations involves wide CO.
Il operation; and until the majority of in,
II dividuals composing q community is
| brought to q fair level of understand
ing of and belief in the measures pro-
Il posed. serious and sustained endeavol
Il to enforce them is scarcely to be eX
II pected.
Il Routing Sugaboo.
II "And yet no better instance of 8
! communicable disease could perhaps be
/ invoked than influenza to exercise the
false idea of the mysterious origin OF
II epidemics. To dwell solely on the sud
Il den and overwhelming stroke of thu
disease IS wholly to overlook thu
II significant incidents that precede the
/ mass infection. because they are O.
| such ordinary nature and lack all ORA
matte quality. Accurate observer:
II noted long ago that influenza in it:
epidemic form did not constitute al
i exception to the common rule govern
II ing epidemic diseases, which wer
1 obviously associated with persons ant
their migrations. What the early stu
), dents made out by tracing the cpl
/ delnic backward to it's point of depar
ture, more modern observers have con
firmed by carefully kept records. offer
graphically complied, as in the excel
lent instance Of the Munich record
covering the epidemic of 1SS9-92, whic
can now be supplemented by numbe
of similarly constructed records of tn
epidemic just passed. These detaile.
records show convincingly a period Q
invasion during which there Is a grad
uai rise in the number of cases {
eliminate. within period variousl
estimated at fra1n one TO three weeks
in widespread. so-called explosive
outbreak of the disease.
ut happens that the early cases O
epidemic influenza tend not to be ST
|
attended by pneumonia and hence ar
frequently mistaken, and the confusio
: in diagnosis is resolved only when th
full intensity of-the epidemic is rea
lied. In the meantime, rich oppol
tunity has beep afforded for the fire
and unrestricted commingling of tn
| sick and the well, of doubles
healthy carriers of the melting ager
| and others, until so high a degree 9
. dissemination of the provoking micrt
organism has been secured as to e,
pose the entire susceptible element {
the population, which happens to b
! large, to an almost simultaneous n
Spouse to the effects of the ihfectin
microbe.
deductions of like import can
/ WANTED-Reiiable man to sci
guaranteed roof and barn paints to to
bacco farmers on local warehous