A NEW DISEASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7946, 23 January 1906, Page 7

A NEW DISEASE.

NAMED INPLU NEURALGIA. At the beginning of every winter, writes a London correspondent, when fogs descend over the city r ani when the air becomes charged with that chilly dampness peculiar 'to this country, whioh even tho warmest and thickest clothing seems powerless to withstand, everyone 'begins talking about influenza, and wondering what form it will take this year, for every'winter it never fails to come along in a diffeient disgnise. * Influenza has made its appearance this year, in the shape of violent neuralgia, accompanied by high temperature. It began some years ago, as its victims have cause to remember, with the rheumatio tyre, whioh affected the 'lungs in later stages. This was the most fatal form the disease took. Next the digestive system was attacked, and this year the nerves, especially those of the head and face, aro soigbt out and tortured. Chemists report a large sale of drugs directed toward relieving these attacks of neuralgia and headaches. Facial pains are almost universal it the present moment. "I believe we are in for a repetition of the headaches and neuralgia of the 60's," said a Hardy Street specialist to a Daily Mail interviewer. "These also followed the outbreak of influ enza of 1849 and 1850. "So far aB I have been able to retrace it the dissease pursued the same cycle and finished with an epidemic of neuralgia and head aches. Jt was [in the 60's that every woman carried' vinaigrettes and smelli&g-salts, owing to the universal and 'fashionable' headaches. Another medical man with a large general oractice said:—"No doubt exists in my own mind that influenza is at the bottom of tho prevalent neuralgia. Many patients have come to rae after a sleepless night, and in one cpsb 1 had a visit from a solicitor in the middle of the day. He explained that he was unfit to do "any work. I treated the neuralgia looally by spraying a volatile fluid upon the parts affected. This causes intense cold and immediate relief. The solicitor, exhausted by sleeplessness and pain, fell asleep in my consultingroom. "The curious point about these recurring phases of influenza is that each is accompanied by different temperatures. The first is marked by 105 degrees,. the second, or stomaohic variety, by 103 degrees, and the latest or neuralgic by 101 degrees." "We are becoming immune to attacks of influenza," said a third authority. About 90 per cent, of the population 'of the country must have had it at cne time or another, for it is tht» most infectious disease imaginable. Our blood has gradually formed a toxin or fluid whioh kills the germs, and tbii is so far perfected in its efficiency that manifestations of the disease are becoming less and less severe. "Influ - neuralgia," accompanied by a relatively low temperature, is its latest form. After persisting for a season or two influenza will probably disappear, to return when the immune population has died out, 30, 40, or 50 years hence."