INFLUENZA. 379 



when one marked instance of influenza occurs, that it is likely 

 that contagion exerts some influence in the spread of the 

 disease. Continental authors, such as Professor Hering, de- 

 scribe three forms of influenza: 1st, The catarrho-rheumatic 

 form ; 2nd, The gastric, or bilious rheumatic form ; and, 3rd, 

 the gastro-erysipelatous form. In this country the line of de- 

 marcation between different forms of influenza has not been 

 so finely drawn, though that there are differences may be 

 gleaned from the recorded notes on various outbreaks. As a 

 rule, with symptoms more or less prominent of a general 

 febrile condition, there is great dulness and debility, frequent 

 and weak pulse, scanty discharge of dry excrement and high- 

 coloured urine, appetite lost, and there are often decided 

 signs of jaundice. The eyes are more or less sunken, upper 

 lid drooping, the conjunctiva of a yellowish-red colour ; the 

 buccal membrane of a similar tint, and the lips hanging; 

 the animal's skin is dry and coat unhealthy-looking. In 

 many cases of influenza, cough, and sore throat, a tendency 

 to catarrh, or, in more common cases, to subacute or latent 

 pleurisy, are characteristic features of the disease. In other 

 cases, again, the symptoms of stomach staggers and partial para- 

 lysis of the hind quarters occur. In this, as in other forms of 

 the disease, there is a great disposition to cedematous swellings, 

 which have been regarded as erysipelatous on the Continent. 

 In 1861 a somewhat general outbreak of influenza oc- 

 curred, which Mr Chapman of Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire, 

 describes as having proved a fearful disease, " commencing in 

 the first stage with great prostration, excited respiration, in 

 some cases terribly laboured, accompanied with a painful 

 grunt, ending in a sigh; pallid membranes; mouth filled 

 with frothy mucus, very foetid; extremities deadly cold; 

 pulse, in many of the worst cases, imperceptible at the jaw, 

 in the milder attacks very feeble, running up to 70 or 80. 



