234 PHYSIC 



organism alone, or almost alone, and the consequent dis- 

 turbances, suppressive and perversive, of its functional 

 powers. 



The other sequels, represented by pneumonia and 

 pulmonary congestion, with the consequences flowing from 

 them, or the secondary morbid processes, flowing directly 

 or indirectly from the invasion of the nervous system, 

 and not as primary or coincident diseases, may be traced 

 to the passage along the pneumogastric nerve trunks of 

 the germs or bacilli of the disease, and to the subsequent 

 attack of the lung structures, first in connection with the 

 nerve terminals, and thereafter by the implication of the 

 pulmonary parenchyma. 



The latter untoward secondary occurrences may thus be 

 regarded as typical examples of the failure of nature, or 

 of nature and art combined, to clear the system of the 

 presence of the rapidly multiplying disease germs ere they 

 have had time to overflow into and invade the extra- 

 nervine structures of the body generally. 



While remarking on the subject of the sequels of 

 influenza, we have also had occasion already to mention 

 that herpetic eruptions are common on various parts of the 

 body as symptoms or consequences of the disease, more 

 especially round the mouth, nose, and eyes, as well as on 

 distant parts, such as the genito-urinary and anal regions, 

 and that the cause of the preferences in site seemed to 

 be the anatomical nearness of the points of exit of the 

 cerebro-spinal fluid, viz. the nasal and coccygeal excretory 

 organisms. 



In other words, the pent-up cerebro-spinal fluid, it may 

 be, under more than ordinary pressure, finds its way along 

 the channels of least resistance leading from the particular 

 part or parts of the nervous system or nerve structures 

 involved, besides invading the more open and yielding 

 contiguous channels and inter-spaces. 



We forbear, for the present, from entering into the very 

 important matter of the therapeutics of the disease, but 

 feel constrained to add a few lines regarding the results 

 of late research bearing on the subject of its genesis. 



For instance, that Pfeiffer has discovered and isolated 

 the microbe or bacillus of influenza, that it is the smallest 



