Show CAUSE AND CURE OF FLU STILL BAFFLE PHYSICIANS Influenza ranks among the deadliest of the world worlds s enigmas Nobody kno knows s where here it comes from Nobody knows what hat hat it Is Once every ery twenty t years It stalls stalks the earth spreading death and Illness in every nook and corner of or the universe erse During the war ar It killed nearly Dearly as many men as bullets did It ItIs Itis ItIs Is one ono of oC the oldest foes roes of ot the human buman race And yet through the tho centuries It has escaped the grasp of Hof or medical science Influenza seems to share with tu- tu tuberculosis tu tuberculosis and leprosy the bad reputation reputation reputation tion of having ha existed it at least since history began and ind among every ery people to whom history relates writes Dr Drw DrW w A Evans E former university pro professor professor ressor fessor and president of or the tho AmerIcan Public Health Health Association in the cur cur- current current cur current rent Issue of or Liberty Magazine The The great world waves aves of Influenza ha have hae e s swept over 0 er us during the past four centuries at Intervals of about twenty years scars ears The beter observed cd pandemics of the last fifty years Indicate that a t twenty enty year Interval Is about right though there Is considerable lack Inck of uniformity Between Deteen the great world orld waves or pandemics there Is always ays a procession procession procession sion of somo epidemics epidemics some local some In a waves es and some better spoken of or as Irregular surges During the epidemic or of 1918 the number of deaths of o United States soldiers caused by It was 46 as against GO 50 battle deaths There are questions about Influenza that no one can settle with the Lion no now available a and this matter or of orIts Its constant abiding presence and the genesis of epidemic outbreaks Is one of l them To begin with wo e do not know that hat microbe causes Causs It or whether It ItIs itis itIs Is caused by i a a virus Irus or r what or Nor Is there any an specific euro cure e eare are rc e oven n the he opportunity of or mak mak- makIng mak- mak making making ing bat ph physicians call a therapeutic test lor I or example if a bick man has an obscure fever reer and physicians cure him with quinine they say his disease was malaria as IlS proved pro by the therapeutic ther test With respect to Influenza wo vvo e are arede de devoid deold old of or a clinical as well tell ell as a olo Ie method of diagnosing Since there Is no possibility of or a bacterial or other laboratory diagnosis or of influenza the ph physicians must decide the nature of a gh given en case by the clinical clin- clin clinIcal clin clinical ical S symptoms and by the appearance or of orthe the lungs In those few fen cases that come cometo cometo cometo to autopsy The symptoms of mild influenza In- In Influenza In Influenza are arc exactly those of or the ordin ordinary ordinary ary common cold diagnosis bet een In influenza and corza in ordin- ordin ordin-ari ordin ar seasons Is without value alue The The typical lung where here death Is due to typical Influenza Is called the wet et red lung Rut nut post postmortems mortem modems are infrequent and even p In fatal influenza the typical wet et red lung Is not always ays round found |