THE EPIDEMIC IN BRITAIN

Evening Star, Issue 16923, 21 December 1918, Page 8

THE EPIDEMIC IN BRITAIN

DOCTORS PUZZLED

Captain 'J. T. Marshall (retired), of WelhiuTon, lias forwarded to the Mayor of Woffington a copy of a letter received from his brother, written in Glasgow on October 6, and referring chiefly to the influenza epidemic at Dome. In the course of the letter the writer states; “We went for holidays at the end of August, hut within a fortnight I was knocked over with that scourge, the socalled influenza (which is now almost an epidemic!, and that in a strange house was added trouble. The old-time influenza by my (and no doubt yonr)_ recollection was a* simple, if severe, cold in the head. What the doctors mean hy applying the name to a severe fever, accompanied by unconsciousness and utter helplessness, I don’t know, and, what is more, I don’t think t!ie doctors known It is nil over (he Kingdom, anyway, and it leaves the victim mortally weak, with the great risk of (so-called) pneumonia following it in cases of weaklv people, and the doctors fear mortally a chill on recovery from influenza. Fortunately I was free of that, and got on the convalescent list very weak after a mouth in bed, being for some of the days at the crisis unconscious. The result was to spoil the whole holiday for all of us but wo had to stay some three weeks longer till I was strong for the journey, and we returned hero (to Glasgow) on September 24. They tell me I was ill before I left, but it was not to my knowledge or we never would have started. The illness declared itself fully after the first week, so one cannot blame an injection after leaving Glasgow. This is the only serious illness I have had ru ail my life. Some suggest that prisoners or regueees brought the trouble from the. Continent. It attacks all classes and all ages, and lota of schools are closed, and works are seriously interfered with owing to the epidemic among the workpeople. Conditions or means or surroundings seem to play no part in the spread of the disease, and the medical men are wondering yet. My doctor said that if the temperature rose to 103 the fever took charge and his fight was to get that reduced; but lam curious to know where, and how the original infection arose—the doctors look wi» e , but have nothing to say." It appears that in giving the returns of the deaths in Glasgow those who died of influenza were separated from those who succumbed to pneumonia, for the letter says; “Fifty-five died in Glasgow from influenza last week, and 65 from pneumonia." The letter continue?; ‘ Many doctors in Britain try to deny that it is an infectious disease, but I see reported to-day (October 6, 1918) that the French Government have ordered it to bs reported as infectious. The British doctors will wake up and follow the French lead in perhaps 20 years to come, and then let themselves down easy by giving it some new name to cloud the ‘issue. Up to the present it is very mysterious what the cursed thing is.”