INFLUENZA.

Wellington Independent, Volume XIV, Issue 1444, 7 August 1860, Page 5

INFLUENZA.

[From the '• Sydney Morning Herald."]

The great number of persons suffering from the influenza at the present moment will excite more than common interest in a few facts in reference to its history and progress in former times. The information we give we of course derive from medical authorities. Those who are anxious for more may oonsult "Kemp's Medical Guide," the Cyclopedia of Medicine," and Graham's Domestic Medicine."

The visitation of this epidemic has been noticed for more than a century. It has not only traversed Europe but shown itself in Asia and China. The College of Physicians collected from various documents an account of the influenza of 1752, and retraced its ravages in former times. In 1833 it raged through Europe, and it was supposed that half the inhabitants of the most populous cities were attacked by it. But the epidemic influenza of 1837 was far more general, severe, and fatal than that of 1833 ; in all these respects it probably exceeded any epidemio with which Great Britain bad been visited within the memory of man.

Tbe influenza does not conßne its visits to any particular season. In 1767 it happened in June ; it occured in the same month in 1782; in the first the weather had been hot, in the second cold. In 1837, it was during the month of January, iv Great Britain, and three months later in Portugal. There is scarcely any need to chronicle the symptoms in their milder forms. We see them everywhere, dullness, alternating with heat, weariness of the eyes ; hoarseness, cough — to begin with. After these the patient demands the oare of a physician. We might add an alaming catalogue of symptoms, closing with the usual termination," when death oomes to the relief of the sufferer." But we prefer leaving this to the profession, as well as the method of cure.

The oause of the influenza seems obscuie. "It proceeds from east to west, and from north to south." Its contagious properties are uudeniable," accord'ng to one writer. It is said that it usually ravages a place for six weeks, and after the ordinary inhabitants are relieved it still attacks strangers. " Dr. Wat?on (we quote from Kemp's Guide) relates some curious instances of the rapidity with which it has attacked large bodies of men. On the 3rd April, 1833," he says, " the very day on which I saw the first two cases of influenza that I did see, all London being smitten with it on thai and the following day; on the same day the Stag whs coming up the Channel, and arrived at two o'clock, off Berry Head, on the Devonshire coast, all on board being well at that time. In half an hour, the breeze being easterly, and blowing off the laud, forty men were down with the influenza ; by six o'clock the number was increased to sixty, and by two o'clock next day to a hundred and sixty. On the selfsame evening a regiment on duty at Portsmouth was in a perfectly healthy state, but by the next morning so many soldiers of that regiment were affected that the garrison duty could not be performed." Some contend that the electrical state of the atmosphere has great influenoe on the disease, which seems probable enough.

The medical world was greatly divided in reference to the proper mode of treatment, especially in respect to blood-let-ting. The disease is exhausting, aud the patient soon sinks in unskilful hands. Of the ill effects of bleeding, observes one of our authorities, "in a small town of Spain where two thousand influenza patients were bled, two thousand died." This does not say they ware the identical two thousand in both cases, or nothing could be clearer. Perhaps, however, it Is only a reverbration of the fame of the great Spanish physician, Dr. Sang r ado, who, as every reader knows, had two prescriptions, the lancet and the hot water. Other medical writers insist that it is necessary to bleed and that for want of this measure many have died. '• Truth," says Dr Andrew, of Glasgow, " lies between them." "It is not to discussions of medical societies, where parties have distinct and separate interests in view, and deliver their opinions in the warmth of debate, that we are to look for the best information on such a subject. There is no doubt when inflammation of any organ is evident from the symptoms of pneumonia, or inflamatiou of the lungs, or the covering the pleura, at present, bleeding is necessary. Pleurisy indeed sometimes accompanies influenza, &Dd when this is the case, there is a hard pulse pain of the side or the chest, for the most part pungent, with difficulty of lying on the side were the pain is felt, which is always increased by inspiration. ludeed when the pleura is inflamed, the feverish indications are more strongly marked ; the topical pain sharpens, the patient crying out with distress when desired to take a full inspiration. These symptoms being present, aud conjoined with some of the distinguishing symptoms of influenza, who would hesitate to bleed, and that freely f" From these different statements it is clear that much judgment is requisite in treating mixed cases, and that man? fuels must be taken into ac count; climate, time of year, the oonsti tuiion, age, and habits of the patient -

and that a single remedy, it more than the simplest, is, in the hand of " Every mau his own Physician,'' — much like a razor in the fingers of a ohild. It is said the influenza, in its visits ot various countries, China and Mauritius, Boston, France, Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, and Ireland, threw up symptoms peculiar to the race or country, aod that in some venesection was always required. In an epidemic that visited England during the last century, it is said three or four were bled, and they died. In ordinary oases, it is agreed that the diet should be light, and ohiefly vegetable : ohicken broth, rice, arrowroot, sago, while the febrile symptoms remain. Afterwards a more generous diet may be allowed.