Influenza : $b An epidemiologic studyVaughan, Warren T. (Warren Taylor)
History
Influenza : $b An epidemiologic study
Vaughan, Warren T. (Warren Taylor)
Influenza
Finkler writes as follows concerning the epidemic of 1758: “On Oct.
24th, Whytt continues, the pestilence began to abate. He is not sure
whether this was due to a change in the weather, or because the disease
had already attacked most people, although the latter seems more
plausible to him, particularly as he says that ‘in Edinburgh and its
vicinity not one out of six or seven escaped,’ and in other localities
it is said to have been even worse. In the north of Scotland also, the
epidemic was greatly disseminated from the middle of October to the end
of November. A young physician wrote to Robert Whytt: ‘It was the most
universal epidemic I ever saw, and I am persuaded that more people were
seized with it than escaped.’ This same physician reported that ‘it was
not at all mortal here.’”
In the epidemic of 1762, we learn from Razoux, de Brest, Saillant,
Ehrmann, that the morbidity was great while the mortality was low.
According to Grimm, nine-tenths of the inhabitants of Eisenach
contracted the disease in 1767.
Daniel Rainy, of Dublin, in describing the invasion of an institution in
1775–76, tells us that from among 367 persons varying in age from 12 to
90 years, 200 were taken sick. Thomas Glass says: “There sickened in
Exeter Hospital all the inmates, one hundred and seventy-three in
number; one hundred and sixty-two had coughs. Two or three days after
the hospital was invaded the city workhouse was attacked; of the two
hundred paupers housed there only very few escaped the disease.”
Gilibert described an extraordinary morbidity in Russia in 1780–81.
Metzger says that in 1782 the Russian catarrh was so universal during
the month of March that in many houses all the inhabitants were
attacked. During this period, “in St. Petersburg, 30,000, and in
Königsberg, 1,000 persons fell ill each day;” in Rome two-thirds of the
inhabitants were attacked; in Munich, three-fourths; and in Vienna the
severity of the epidemic compelled the authorities to close the theaters
for eight days.
The epidemics of 1788–89, 1799–1800 and of 1802–1803 were characterized
by a relatively lower morbidity than that of 1830–32, in which the
morbidity was again enormous. Likewise in 1833, the morbidity was very
great. In Prague “scarcely a house was spared by the plague.” In
Petrograd, 10,000 persons were attacked; in Berlin at least 50,000.
These are the figures of Hufeland. The Gazette Médicale records the
morbidity as being four-fifths of the total number of inhabitants of
Paris.
In 1836, according to Gluge, 40,000 persons suffered from the disease in
Berlin alone.
In London, in the 1847 epidemic, it has been calculated that at least
250,000 individuals took sick, and in Paris, according to Marc d’Espine,
between one-fourth and one-half of the population developed the disease,
and in Geneva not less than one-third.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account