INFLUENZA

an acute infectious disease caused by a specific bacillus, Bacillus influenze, characterized by fever and by symptoms affecting the respiratory, digestive, or nervous systems, It occurs in epidemics, appearing most freNe Nn quently in the winter months, and has spread, at one time or another, to practically all parts of the world, adults between the ages of twenty and forty being attacked most-often, children and aged persons le frequently. Infection is from the secretions of the mucous membrane of the nasal pa ages and the trachea and bronchial tubes. The incubation period of the disease is from two to six days. The onset is sudden, with pains in the back and_loins, and headache, often accompanied by giddine and nausea or vomiting. The temp. rises quickly, varying from 100° to 104°, and a feeling of weakne and discomfort is marked. After a few days the disease may a ume one of four varieties: vespira-. tory, with bronchitis or broncho-pneumonia developing; gastro-intestinal, with pain in the abdomen, vomiting, and diarrhoea; nervous, with great depre ion, insomnia, severe headache and other pain, irregular heart, and perhaps delirfum; febrile, with pronounced prostration and high temp., especially in children. The death-rate in proportion to the number of cases is not high. In the epidemic of 1890 it was 1.6 per 1,000. But in the extraordinary epidemics of so called ‘Spanish influenza,’ which swept acro the whole world in 1918 and 1919, this mortality was greatly excoeded. Most of the fatal cases were complicated by pneumonia. ‘There were severe epidemics of influenza in the United States jn 1921 and 1922. i‘: The treatment is rest in bed; warmth, and nourishing foods, complications being treated as they arise. For the pains at the commencement of an attack, salicylate of soda is valuable, phenacetin if headache is pronounced, while quinine, phenol, and a host of other drugs have been employed. Vaccines, both prophylactic and curative, have been tried, but the evidence of their value is not conclusive.