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teriological characteristics, goes to show that it is a disease
against which it is most difficult to apply measures of prevention
with any substantial prospect of success.
Influenza is highly infective from person to person; its
infectious quality is often manifested before the disease is fully
recognised; its incubation period is one of the shortest of all
infectious diseases; it varies so much in intensity that many
cases are never diagnosed at all; one attack confers no marked
immunity against another; and the infection is largely eliminated
by means of the lungs, the sputa of the sick being invariably
charged, during the acute stage of the disease, with its pathognomonic
micro-organism. The disease calls primarily for measures
of isolation and of disinfection, but there are difficulties
in making any such measures universally applicable. Wherever
they can be carried out, the following precautions should, however,
be adopted:—
1st. The sick should be separated from the healthy. This
is especially important in the case of first attacks
in a locality or a household.
2nd. The sputa of the sick should, especially in the acute
stage of the disease, be received into vessels containing
disinfectants. Infected articles and rooms
should be cleansed and disinfected.
3rd. When Influenza threatens, unnecessary assemblage
of persons should be avoided.
4th. Buildings and rooms in which many people necessarily
congregate should be efficiently aerated and cleansed
during the intervals of occupation.
It should be borne in mind that the liability to contract
Influenza, and also the danger of an attack, if contracted, are
increased by depressing conditions, such as exposure to cold,
and to fatigue whether mental or physical. Attention should
hence be paid at epidemic periods to all measures tending to the