INFLUENZA AND OTHER EPIDEMICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3400, 14 May 1919, Page 61

INFLUENZA AND OTHER EPIDEMICS.

The first of a series of winter lectures, arranged by the Empire Service League, was given at the Allen Hall on the 30th by Dr 'coiquiioun, nlio too): lor ma suojcco '"lnfluenza and Other Kp. : dcp;i: ." 'i'ho audience was a fairly largo oriu. Dr Benham (.chairman) briefly explained that the object of the Empire Service. League was not very well understood—it was service to one another, service to the community, service to the Empire. Ita ideal was a high one, but they had to seethat those ideals did not conflict one with tho other.

Dr Colquhoun said tho knowledge of human history was essential to the proper understanding of all the problems that had ' to be met to-day. Ho had, however, on that occasion to deal with only a small part i of that history—tho struggles* of mankind, against disease and for the prevention of' death. Influenza had shown itself to be aa epidemic or a pandemic, which meant * sickness that fell upon all people. Malaria might bo taken as a typo of endemitf disease. 'lliose epidemics might with truth be said to havo destroyed empires, governments, and peoples. They had fashioned! our lives as we now know them. and. ou<! mental, moral, and spiritual qualities had! been shaped or modified by them. N<* disease had played a greater part in history than the plague, which still existed in Asia! and Africa, and extended now and again td other parts of the world. It had visited New Zealand, but fortunately was checked' by _ tho Health Department. The lecture* vividly described the ravages caused by the Great Plague in tho sixteenth century, which apparently began in tho East and followed the lines of trade communication. I This method of dispersion was common to} j many pandemio diseases, and was seen in '$ our own time in the influenza epidemics', ■ which since 1889 had followed the lineg of ■ human communications. It was said thaK after the fourteenth oentury p'ague only '• tenth of the population was left in England, and that 23,810,000 had died in the East, while India was said to be depopulated. Some held that influenza had some relation to the plague ; but there could be no doubK ' that plague end influenza were distinct diseases, though both had some similar/ features. Between-1173 and the middle of the nineteenth century there had been 83 epidemics of undoubted influenza, but on" the whole it might be said of influenza thai its main characteristics had been the wide« spread nature of the contagion and the comparatively small number of deaths. It was probably true that influenza had killed mora people than cholera and plague. It had , had long periods of quiescence, followed by j irruptive periods of activity. The late at- ' tacks had first appeared in Asiatio Russia in 1888, and in the following year and ia 1890 a few oases occurred in New Zealand. The mortality in the last attack was estimated to be from £ to 1 per cent, of those attacked, and was associated with many grave symptoms. It was a form of nerve' poison of considerable intensity, leaving behind it often a train of symptoms of nervoutj weakness. It poisoned the muscles of tha body, including the heart, leaving dangerous weakness some time after an attack. It was still a matter of controversy as to whether the disease was introduced here by the Niagara, but ho had no doubt that ; tho disease was in New Zealand before thai .; vessel arrived, and there was equally littla. '■ doubt that it was introduced from Europa . or Africa and was part of the exiting? ! pandemic. It was estimated that during tha" last 12 months six or seven millions' had died throughout the world of influenza, and in New Zealand tho death rate had risen to 18 per 1000, the normal average being about 10 per 10C0. Tho lecturer then referred to what was believed concerned tha origin of infectious diseases before tho discoveries made in tho nineteenth oentury, and went on to say that the first clue as to! tho nature of infectious diseases came with the use of tho microscope in tho seventeenth j century and the investigations of Leeuwenbock, a Dutch naturalist, and Audry, •' Frenchman./ The germ theory then 'da*'] cussed wa9 met with ridioule. The discoveries of Liebig, Pasteur, and Lister brought about a great improvement in surgery, but Koch did more than any other man to establish the fact that certain diseases were due to specific microsoopiO: organisms. Referenco was made by tho lecturer to the influence of malarial and other germs and the various kinds of germcarriers, many of which were water-borne. ' There were many problems with regard to infection which had not been solved, but i» was certain that all lower organisms which live on man were favoured by dirt and disorder —thoy wero nearly all destroyed by free exposure to sunlight and pure air. Tha lesson to all was that by systematio attention to water supply, drainage, cleanliness, and proper housing some of tho chief epidemics could be banished from large centres. Quarantine, the doctor thought, had always been a clumsy, oppressive, and ineffectual measure. He looked upon interference with our communications with Australia and America as the result of panic and ignorance. Vaccination had been urged for uea against influenza, but there should be littla difficulty in deciding against the general principle of attacking infectious diseases by inoculations. On the whole, the wisest thinff that could be done was to improve in every way our public and. private hygiene. On the motion of Mr Logie a hearty veto of thanks was accorded to Dr Colquhoun for his valuable lecture.