44 The Management and Treatment of the tt< 



orse, 



cause, symptoms, and treatment of this malignant dis- 

 ease. Mr Thomas Greaves says in an admirable paper* 

 written in the year 1865, " The pestilence that walked in 

 darkness is no fiction. Both sacred and profane writers 

 find ample proof that from the very earliest times down 

 to the present age man has been periodically startled by 

 its silent, invisible, but irresistible agency. Well might 

 the ancients in their terror attribute it to the destroying 

 angel. But its destructive influence has not been 

 confined to man ; animals have been from time to time 

 swept off in multitudes. The cause or causes ap- 

 peared at the time inscrutable ; but in all probability 

 they were one and the same agency, and their degree 

 of virulence was dependent upon certain modified 

 circumstances. Notwithstanding whatever may be said 

 to the contrary, a mystery overhangs every epizootic 

 disease, giving rise to vague and contradictory actions 

 in reference to its precise cause. Now upon this point, 

 as well as upon the point of the nature and treatment of 

 influenza, it will be observed as we proceed that I have 

 dared to step out of the beaten track of routine and 

 have dared to advance some new theories. I am not 

 abandoning the cause of science and progress by utter- 

 ing these sentiments. I believe the question to be a 

 question between progress and retrogression, and the 

 issue we have to try is of enormous importance. In 

 the first place it is quite safe to conclude that this dis- 

 temper, which has ravaged the whole of England and 

 most parts of Europe during the past winter (1864), 

 emanates from atmospheric causes acting directly upon 

 the organic system of the nerves. But what the precise 



