Further report and papers on epidemic influenza, 1889-92 : with an introduction by the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board.

Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Further report and papers on epidemic influenza, 1889-92 : with an introduction by the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    intercourse, so far outweighs any that has been put forward in favour of its being due to atmospheric causes, as to suggest that where these have been accepted as accounting for outbreaks, all the circumstances of the local prevalences in question have not been forthcoming. Durin<^ both 1890 and 1891 the death-rate from Influenza was greater amongst males than amongst females, and this especially at the middle period of life ; and having regard to the serious influence of the disease on the nervous system, it is highly probable that this result may be mainly due to the fatigue, mental as well as physical, and to the exposure to which men are more especially subjected. I'he heavier mortality from Influenza experienced in the later epidemics as compured with that of 1889-90, lias appeared to be in part due to the fact that whereas in the former epidemic disturbances of the circulatory and cerebro-spinal systems Avere prominent manifestations; the stress of the malady in the more recent prevalences fell especially upon the lungs. This has led Dr. Parsons to raise in liis present report the question as to whether inflammatory affections of the lung, and especially pneumonia, are an integral part of the disease or merely super- added complications. Clinical study of disease has not, as yel, succeeded in clearing up this point, but the bacteriological investigations which have been carried on have a distinct bearing on the question. In January 1892, Dr. Klein, referring to the observations of Pfeiffer and Kitasato on the constant and copious occurrence, in the bronchial secretion of cases of Influenza, of a species of minute bacillus, as also to the observations of Canon on the occurrence of bacilli in the blood of Influenza cases, gave an account in the British Medical Journal of certain experiments which he had carried out as soon as the epidemic reached this country. Examination of the blood was made in six cases ; in one instance only were a few minute bacilli, resembling those described by Pfeiffer, discovered, and in all six cases tubes inoculated with the blood remained sterile. But it was otherwise with the bronchial sputum of three cases which had passed a few days previously through the acute febrile stage of the disease. The sputa in each instance contained bacilli as described by Pfeiffer and Kitasato; in a recent case they were so numerous as to amount almost to a pure cultivation; and both cultures and subcultures of the characteristic organism were successfully made. Soon after the publication of these data the Board decided that, in view of the recurrence of epidemic Influenza in this country, it E 75719, V