INFLUENZA. 563 



on expressing views antagonistic to the views held by those 

 learned men. Yet were I to do otherwise, I would not do 

 justice to myself, and consequently I must array myself on 

 the side of those who believe that influenza, under certain 

 circumstances, is contagious as well as infectious, and will 

 now endeavour to give a few reasons for so thinking, or, 

 rather, for disputing, the assertion made by some, that it is 

 a non-contagious disease. 



We are told that it has attacked crews of ships in the 

 midst of the ocean, and, therefore, cannot be contagious. 

 But might not the germs of the disease have been lurking 

 in the systems of the men from the time they left the port, 

 only to become developed and produce the disease while on 

 the voyage 1 This is reasonable, and, I think does away with 

 one argument in favour of the non-contagious character of 

 influenza. 



Mr. Greene, M.E.C.V.S., St. John's, N.B., records the 

 following, which Prof. Williams designates as ' an important 

 fact ' : 



^Ir. Greene says : ' I was always under the impression 

 that influenza was both contagious and infectious till the 

 late outbreak ; since then I have altered my views with 

 regard to the contagion and infection of that disease. One 

 among several facts which I could mention will bear me 

 out in this question. During the month of July, 1872, a 

 horse had been put to grass on Partridge Island in the Bay 

 of Fundy. This island is distant from this city three miles. 

 Xo other horse had been near the island from the date of 

 his landing up to the time of the outbreak in St. John's 

 X.B., and on the 15th or 16th of October, which w^as only 

 two or three days after the first case was reported in this 

 city, the horse on the island was affected with the most 

 violent form of the epizootic' (See Williams's 'Med.,' page 

 329.) Now, with all due deference to Professor Williams, 



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