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1918
7
November. In only one large factory did the absentees reach
10 per cent, of the total in the autumn, whilst several reached
this figure in July. In one large factory the absentees reached
barely 5 per cent, in the autumn and over 10 per cent, in the
summer.
In comparison with the autumn epidemic, the cases in the
summer were comparatively mild. In the third quarter of the
year only 9 deaths occurred, compared with 177 in. the last
quarter.
The difference in the type of disease possibly accounted
for the fact that the doctors were not so overwhelmed with
work in July as they were in October. In the summer
epidemic most of the patients went to the doctor's dispensary,
were sent home to bed for a couple of days and went back
again on the third or fourth day. In the autumn epidemic the
patients were so bad that they had to send for the doctor, or if
they went to the dispensary they were sent home and visited.
It may be stated roughly, that in this district the number of
houses on a doctor's visiting list in the autumn epidemic would
be three or four times the number in the summer one, but the
number of cases seen in the surgery in the summer epidemic
largely exceeded those seen under similar conditions in tho
autumn one.
It appears that this sequence of events usually follows in
Influenza epidemics. The secondary wave is usually more
virulent than the first.
It is not my intention to discuss the various theories which
have been advanced as to the cause of the outbreak. We have
already been deluged with literature on the subject, and
volumes will probably again be written on the causation of the
late outbreak ; but a protest may be raised against some of the
absurd theories which have been advanced and evidently very
widely believed in. It is certain that no cause which is local
in its operation can account for the origin of the disease.
Some of the theories have been advanced by interested persons,
and the press has been utilized to urge upon the Government
measures which it is asserted, if adopted in time would have
averted the epidemic. Some of the theories have been fantistic
and ludicrous. The two theories which have obtained most