THE INFLUENZA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 41, 17 February 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE INFLUENZA.

WORST EPIDEMIC SINCE 1892;

Writes our London correspondent:!

The list of deaths in the morning' papers is so long- nowadays that, one begins to see that another foe-than war has attacked us—that j>estilence is abroad. This scourge is undoubtedly influenza.. Since its memorable/ ar>2>earance in Europe, in the year when tlie corpses of. a million Chinamen were rotting- in the pools left by the subsiding- inundation of"ttig \£el: low River, this Eastern rayagerVrlias yearly swept oft' our weakly ones, while it has seriously lowered thp vitality of...many'stronger", constitutions. ■> ' . ' ' * '

The veiy d latest methdd of cure.is! described by Mr Thornton, an Army / doctor at' the Canterbury Military; Hospital. 'j\:s he " truly, says,, "It is hardly a method for private practice." "My plan/ he Says,, "as this—t o smear the soles of both feet between: the toes and the heels "With ungueivtum liydrag-yri and then to start walking-. As I had fo continue work until ' after six o'clock, this w-aVno trouble. - I kept the socks and shoes (with a ■■/ layer of thick brown paper ovei* the ■'; inner soles to keep the shoes clean) ; on until-bedtime, when I put on A'.: clean pahs of socks without removing the mercury, which was washed oft this morning-. My diet from lutfch to bed time was four basins of bread and . milk. This morning- I am as fit as ever, at eight o'clock eatin/ a good meat breakfast, my terripera/ure^being below normal. Quite ha/f at; dozen jv::. times, when attacked by influenza-, J;:; have carried out this treatment witli i; ; the same results-—nevez1 being laifi ■ up." ' ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ /■ ■ - ' :! ■'"' "•■■"'■i-; The. Registrar-General's returns last' ; : week show that the weekly death rate! attributed to influenza has been rising steadily. Eight weeks ago irifluenzij. death rate in liondim was 14. In the. ■; week before Christmas Day it- Was.-69,' and last week if- was 193, or almost three times the number of the preceding- week, jlany of the deaths recorded as due- to pneumonia are cli;

rectly attributable to influenza

j An electric paper describes- an -exr, I traordinary phenomenon which has 'been noticed with regard to chestnut trees in ji street in Brussels since the installation of the electric-tram caTs.' The foliage begins to turn brown a'jirt drop early in August, to biul and:evenblossom again in October. The trees on the opposite of the tramway behave like ordinary trees, for they lQs c their foliage in the late autumn, an'l clo not put forth fresh, blossoms until the springl. Botanists are inclined .to believe that the cause of this State of thing-s is due to the lealcage of the electrical current at places under-; . ground acting upon the roots of the . trees, which are otherwise quite healthy.

[Published by Special Arrangement.]