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Show II SPANISH INFLUENZA, HI PANDEMIC. W m The question. "How does It happen Kjjlll than the present epidemic of Spanish Bfijluj influenza is so fatal?" Is' uppermost In H Iffi the minds of the people. A complete Ell lur tra satisfactory answer cannot be Bui U vouchsafed, as yet, but perhaps a par- HhzIo 1 explanation Is forthcoming. Hill e t8rm "Influenza" Is Italian in origin and literally translated means Ullll ""influence." What influences govern HPilu tQ0 disease arc not def1nitely I! Ill 111 known. KljjlP The term "la grippe" was intro- ili I duced by the French in 1712 and be- H III came accepted as popular name of the Ik j I disease. Rmfj The first epidemic of la grippe ap- E H peared in 1647. It swept not only this HliH country but the West Indies, reaping RjjJB a loll of about 6000 deaths. Four great Kjljl pandemics of influenza occurred dur- Ulllll mg the last century, 1830-1S33, 1836- il 1S37, 1847-1848 and 1SS9-1890. This Hjj! 1 last world-wide outbreak, visited every Hilll part of the known world. jnlljP "The course of the disease is fairly Bjljy constant," says Dr. Wade W. Oliver, of the Long Island hospital, at Brook- lyn, in the Scientific American. "The incubation period, that is the time , elapsing between the entrance of the !; causative germB into the body and the appearance of symptoms of dis- : ease, is short, probably one to two i days. The onset Is sudden, the pa- 1 tlent not infrequently showing marked i prostration within a few hours. There ( may be a1 history of a slight sore i throat or a feeling of being "out of sorts" for a few days previous, but many patpients give no such historj'i i passing from an apparently well con- i dition to a state of moBt profound pros- ! tration within two to four hours. Head- acho and pains in the back, limbs and 1 Joints are initial symptoms. Along ! with this go a feeling of chilliness, fever varying from 101 degrees F. to 1 104 degrees F., and prostration. This : prostration is one of the characteris- I tics of tho disease and is probably due to a rapid overwhelming of the body i by poisons (toxins), produced by the i rapidly multiplying germs. In a typi- i cal case, the reddened throat, sneezing sneez-ing and cough 'develop about three days after the onset of the disease. It i is during this period of cough and sneezing that the disease probably is most contagious. If no complications develop the attack gradually subsides and within a week the patient begins to return to normal, although his cough frequently persists and he still j feels "weak." Another week of rest is advisable before the patient returns ' to his regular Avork." Dr. Oliver adds that the treatment ! is along these broad lines: 1. Proven- . tion to be attained by avoiding crowds, and also individuals affected with Influenza. 2. Rest go to bed immediately im-mediately and call a doctor. . ( The deaths resulting from the pres-nt pres-nt epidemic have been largely duo to complications, among which pneumonia pneumo-nia has been the most common. I The Influenza bacclllus, a tiny germ averaging about 1-25,000 inch In length, discovered in 1S92 by Pfoiffer, gains entrance to the throat of healthy individuals indi-viduals most often through tho fine droplets expelled by an influenza- patient pa-tient during the act of sneezing, coughing cough-ing or loud talking. |