INFLUENZA. 555 



INFLUENzi. 



An Essay read, before the Ontario Veterinary 

 Medical Society, on February 22nd, 1884, 

 Toronto, Ontario, by Edward Courtenay, jun. 



For many centuries veterinary and other authors have 

 noted the occurrence at various periods of an epizootic 

 affection, attacking ahnost every species of animals, birds, 

 and even man himself. This disorder, as noticed by 

 these writers, was marked by certain well-defined general 

 symptoms, which admitted of its being easily distinguished 

 from other diseases, and being assigned a place for itself. 

 The disease has received a multitude of names, some refer- 

 ring to the supposed pathology of the disorder, and some 

 to the symptoms as noticed by the observers. Among the 

 various names applied are the following : ' Distemper,' 

 ' Epidemic Catarrh,' ' Catarrhal Fever,' etc. In France it 

 is named ' Courbature,' ' La Grippe,' etc. In most countries 

 it bears the appellation of ' Influenza,' a name given it by 

 the old Italian writers in the seventeenth century, and 

 which referred to some supposed stellar influence as 

 regarded the production or origin of the disease. 



Influenza has a history which extends far back into the 

 days of the ancients. Hippocrates, a Greek physician, 

 who lived about four hundred years before Christ, and who 

 has been styled the ' Father of Medicine,' mentions the dis- 

 ease as attacking the human race ; and it is fair to presume 

 that it also affected the lower animals at that period. It is 

 mentioned as having occurred in Seville in the year 1299, 

 raging with great fatality, and causing the death of more 

 than a thousand horses. In 1648 it attacked the horses of 

 the French array in Germany. Forty years later it pre- 

 vailed over the whole of Europe, attacking both men and 

 horses ; and in 1699 the continent of America was visited by 



