182 INFLUENZA. 
by the very ignorant. In every place exist horses of fabulous excellence 
in the master’s opinion, imprisoned within walls which exclude the vital 
air. The roof may not permit the animal’s head to be raised, the sides 
may not allow the body to be turned; the fumes within the walls shall 
oppress the lungs and sting the eyes of the man who enters the build- 
ing; yet within a circumscribed space, so foul and pestilential, the horse 
is doomed to exist. Then the animal’s disease is heard of with surprise, 
and its death is lamented as a misfortune | 
What cause is there for grief or for wonder, if impurity does gener- 
ate disease and death? What need has man to ape the martyr, because 
influenza starts from the contamination which by human will has been 
created? The pest once originated sweeps onward, nor can mortal ex- 
clamation nor mortal sorrow check the course of the destroyer; all fall 
alike before the scourge. The filthy and the cleanly alike are stricken; 
yet neither masters nor legislators can draw wisdom from the visitation. 
In influenza there is no difficulty in pointing to the structure affected ; 
it would, however, be hard to allude to the part which was not involved. 
The weakness and stupidity which accompany the affection declare the 
brain and nervous system to be diseased. Local swellings show the 
cellular tissue to be deranged; heat and pain in the limbs and joints 
announce the serous, the ligamentous, and osseous structures implicated. 
The muscular and digestive functions are acutely disordered; the rapid 
wasting of the flesh demonstrate the absorbents are excited. There is 
no portion of the body which can escape the ravage of influenza. 
Youth, or rather the approach of adultism, is the favorite season of 
the attack, which is most prevalent during the spring time of the year. 
There is, however, no period or any age which are altogether exempt 
from its influence. 
All kinds of treatment have been experimented with. Bleeding, 
purging, blistering, setoning have all been tried, and each has destroyed 
more lives than the whole can hoast of having saved; experience has by 
slow degrees shown the inutility of active treatment. Bold measures, 
as those plans are termed which add to another’s suffering, commonly 
end in hydrothorax or water on the chest. 
It is difficult to determine when the first symptom of influenza is 
present. The author is indebted to the acuteness of Mr. T. W. Gow- 
ing, V. 8., of Camden Town, for a knowledge of a marked indication 
declarative of the presence of influenza. A yellowness of the mucous 
membranes, best shown on the conjunctiva or white of the eye, is very 
characteristic. Whenever the sign is seen and sudden weakness re- 
marked, caution should be practiced, for it is ten to one that the pes- 
tilence is approaching. Influenza is a very simulative disorder; it has 
