Epidemic Influenza: Notes on its Origin and Method of Spread

Abstract

THE object of this brief treatise, which was prepared before the issue of the Report of the Local Government Board, is to prove the doctrine, widely held by physicians of eminence in the eighteenth century, that influenza is contagious, or, more strictly speaking, infectious, and therefore, in the opinion of the author, fit to be included among the diseases of which notification is locally compulsory. The book is somewhat peculiar in its arrangement, but in the essential qualities of impartiality and clearness leaves nothing to be desired. Many readers who do not require more than specimens of evidence, will thank Dr. Sisley for compressing the digest of “many thousands” of notes into such narrow compass; but other minds will require a chain of which every link is massive, to guide them to the point of view whence practical conclusions are palpable. If the manner of statement is somewhat bare, and examples rather scanty, in the exposition of a strong but disputed case, the facts brought forward bear none the less value in their neutral setting, and go far to justify the proposition with which he confronts us at the outset, derived from a study of the distribution of the disease and from its pathological character. Valuable assistance from Dr. Klein, Prof. Fleming, and many others, has enabled him to include in his pages some interesting matter relating to the microbic nature of the epidemic and its relation to a similar disease in animals. After all that has been conjectured on the latter point, it appears that evidence of any unusual prevalence of influenza among animals at the time is still wanting.

Epidemic Influenza: Notes on its Origin and Method of Spread.

By Richard Sisley (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1891.)