(DOWNLOAD) "Studies on Epidemic Influenza: Comprising Clinical and Laboratory Investigations" by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Studies on Epidemic Influenza: Comprising Clinical and Laboratory Investigations
- Author : University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
- Release Date : January 01, 2019
- Genre: Medical,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 3077 KB
Description
The history of epidemic influenza extends back with definite authenticity to the Middle Ages, with a fair amount of assurance to the beginning of the Christian Era and with presumptive reliability even before that period. Beyond this statement, nothing definite can be said until the first epidemic reported by Short and found in the English Annals in the year 1510. This, the first reliable record, presented some features not unlike those occurring in the present epidemic. Two or three striking things stand out in this record—namely, the presence of nose bleed, pneumonia and the very great danger to gravid women. Here, for the first time, the meteorological conditions were elaborately studied and persistently dwelt upon. One other impressive thing, also reported by Short, was that in 1580 the disease showed a tendency to return after a period of quiescence. Attention is called to this because the epidemic, while it was exceedingly prevalent in the months of August and September, became pandemic in October and November. Another feature was that during the years intervening between 1580 and 1658 sporadic cases of this disease were frequently reported. During the latter year another epidemic appeared in the month of April. In 1657 and 1658 at London the summer was very warm, the winter came on early, there was much snow and the spring was very moist.
The prevailing opinion at this time, and the first stated by Willis, was that the widespread disease was due to the weather influences on the circulation, poisoning the blood of the patients, and “not blasts of malignant air.” The disease prevailed in the large cities, recurring again in the autumn in an extensive form through the villages and country. Sydenham, in his communication on the epidemic in 1675, wrote emphatically on the influence of the infection on pregnant women, and here used the term “tussis epidemicus” as a name for the disease. The summer of 1675 was wet with an inconstant autumn. La Grippe prevailed in France and Germany, according to Atmuller. In England in 1676, the autumn was pleasant, but suddenly became cold and moist. La Grippe then started in Germany during September after a summer and a beginning autumn which was very rainy. Molyneux in his description of the epidemic of 1693 in Dublin called attention to a feature, very striking to the recent pandemic, that the aged to a great extent escaped the infection. This would seem a somewhat unique feature until that epidemic is compared with the present one. In 1729 Morgagni and others stated that over all Europe the winter of 1728 was very rigorous, the spring was cold and the summer and autumn very variable, while January and February of that year were very moist. Huxham in his record of 1729, the fifth extensive one on record in the English Annals, which extended into 1733, stated from his study at Plymouth that the epidemic was exceedingly mild in the year 1733, and, with the exception of infants and consumptive old people, the mortality was very low. Like many of his predecessors, he emphasized greatly the conditions of the weather at the time and presented an elaborate study of it. The epidemic of 1732 was one of the longest and most persistent, extending up to 1737. All authors do not hesitate to attribute as a cause the very frequent variations of temperature which characterized this period. Of this epidemic Arbuthnot also emphasized the importance of the air, assigning the prevalence and widespread features of the disease to the thick and frequent fogs. From November, 1732, until March, 1733, this disease spread from Germany to Italy and thence to England. He called attention to a very striking feature—namely, that people in prisons and in hospitals escaped the disease. This, as we know, where such institutions are placed under preventive quarantine, is not such a unique feature during this present scourge. He, more than former writers, devoted pages to the elaborate and accurate description of instruments for meteorological observation and their findings, which meteorological records were published in detail, covering the whole period of a year—June, 1732, to June, 1733—with almost daily regularity. Huxham in 1737 in his record first used the term “epidemic catarrhal fever”—a name often used subsequently to describe this disease. Here attention was first called to the prostration which characterized the convalescents, and his belief that consumption frequently followed the disease. The next epidemic, which occurred in 1742 and 1743, was also reported by Huxham, who stated that the weather was very rigorous. This disease, according to his description, extended over all Europe, and the term “influenza” seems to have been first used by him during this time. The cases were mild in England, but more severe in Southern Europe. Whytt in his record of the epidemic of 1758 was the first who did not consider that the air condition or the seasons had the significance attributed to them by former writers, since the weather conditions during the prevalence of the disease were generally mild and dry. In Edinburgh at this time not even one out of seven escaped. Nevertheless, he did not hesitate to express his opinion that the disease did not spread by contagion from one person to another. One other observation of his is worthy of note, which is: that frequent relapses occurred when patients were re-exposed too soon after the first infection and such relapses were much more severe than the original disease.
 "Studies on Epidemic Influenza: Comprising Clinical and Laboratory Investigations" by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free){kind=link}