INFLUENZA. 449 



Influenza {Fink-Eye). 



DEFINITION. — ^Influenza is a specific and infectious fever which 

 shows a marked tendency to rapidly spread over large areas of 

 country. It generally appears suddenly, without preliminary 

 symptoms, and may become fully developed in twenty-four hours 

 (Friedberger and Frohner). In it, the usual symptoms are those 

 of catarrh ; although chest, bowel, rheumatic, or brain compli- 

 cations may be present, either singly or com.bined. It always 

 gives rise to great debility. 



Influenza is also known as Distemper, Pink-Eye, American Horse 

 Disease, and Epizootic Catarrh. 



NATURE. — ^Although, up to the present, no specific microbe has 

 been positively demonstrated to exist in cases of equine influenza ; 

 the resemblance between this disease in horses and la grippe are 

 so numerous and close, that there are good grounds for accepting 

 as a fact, the supposition that the former is due to a micro- 

 organism nearly akin to the bacillus found in the phlegm of persons 

 suffering from the latter. The respective microbes — granting the 

 truth of this theory — are not identical ; for the disease is not 

 communicable from the horse to man, or vice versa. Besides, 

 there seems to be no connection between outbreaks of influenza 

 among men and those among horses. Pfeiffer set up influenza in 

 rabbits by applying to the nasal mucous membrane of these 

 animals, the germs which he had obtained from influenzarinfected 

 men. The human influenza bacillus requires a certain amount of 

 moisture for its existence a;id development. 



Influenza being highly infectious, spreads, as a rule, with great 

 rapidity. 



Williams considered that the outbreak of this epizootic, which 

 affected a great number of horses in Edinburgh and the sur- 

 rounding districts, during the months of January and February, 

 1877, was due to the saturation of the ground with water, owing 

 to long continued wet weather; and advanced the fact, in support 

 of this statement, that cases were, comparatively, very rare in 

 stables, the floors of which were waterproof on account of being 

 covered with cement. This bears out the theory that the microbe 

 of equine influenza, like that of human influenza, develops best 

 under conditions of moisture. It has not infrequently happened, 

 that stables for which influenza has shown a marked partiality, 

 have been rendered sanitary, by taking up the flooring, and putting 

 it down afresh, and by carefully draining the building. 



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