662 
MATTHEW WILSON. 
The theory of its specific origin is, I think, conceded by 
the majority to be the correct one, although we have as yet 
been unable to produce conclusive evidence. 
It is due to a living miasm, capable of being carried onward 
by the air but having an independent existence of its own, and 
which would find in certain places conditions more favorable 
for its development than in others. - 
Take, for example, the last outbreak of influenza in the 
human family, which seemed to have been developed in 
Russia and spread in the direction of human intercourse and 
the prevailing winds from the east to the west. 
This living miasm is capable of transmission through the 
air, of being carried by human beings or, in fact, by any of 
the known modes of infection. 
Influenza has been described as the sum of a series of 
catarrhal manifestations, which have developed under common 
epidemic influences, and the intimate association of the vaiious 
local affections allows us to give them a common specific 
origin. 
Many acute local affections, such as acute catarrh, laryn¬ 
gitis, etc., present very much the same symptoms locally, as 
in this disease, but there is wanting the sudden and general 
seizure, the severe nervous depression, and the extent to which 
the mucous membranes are involved. All these seem in favor 
of a general cause which has a specific effect upon the whole 
body. 
These symptoms are much more severe than in the local 
affections, while they remind us more of analagous symptoms 
in other acute infectious diseases, and for these reasons 1 think 
we are justified in classing it under the same group. 
There is a close analogy between the first symptoms of 
influenza and measles in the human subject. 
Before the eruption occurs on the skin in measles there is 
found to be a catarrhal affection of the mucus membranes 
lining the air passages and also of the conjunctiva. This 
catarrh is so constant a manifestation that it has been con¬ 
sidered a pathognomic symptom, especially in those cases 
where the eruption cannot be seen. Here it is, as in influ¬ 
enza, one of the earliest and most constant symptoms. 
