Abstract
THE widespread recrudescence of influenza in L this country, although on a less fatal scale and of a less virulent type than in the experience of 1918–19, is an unpleasant reminder of our present helplessness in respect of this disease. Many volumes have been written about it. The old Local Government Board issued two reports by Dr. Franklin Parsons, which summarised all we then knew of the epidemic of 1890, and did much to expand our knowledge; and we have now before us an even more portly tome of nearly 600 pages upon the subject, issued by the new Ministry of Health. This report contains valuable historic material, an admirable clinical study of the disease, and suggestive speculations on the statistical aspects of the problem presented by it. These forcibly impress us with the imperfections of statistics dealing with altogether imperfect material. But we cannot be said to have greater knowledge of the disease, from the point of view of preventive medicine, than when Dr. Parsons's reports were issued. This is no reflection on the Ministry of Health; for in every civilised country investigators have similarly drawn a blank so far as guidance for the prevention of the disease is concerned.
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The Influenza Problem. Nature 109, 129–130 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/109129a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/109129a0