Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1891 — THOUSANDS OF CASES OF GRIP [ARTICLE]

THOUSANDS OF CASES OF GRIP

St. LouiH Suffering from a Return of the Kpldemtc. Dr Priest, chief dispensary physician, estimates the nuraler of cases of la Krippe in >t- Louis at '.>(), 000. Three hundred employes of one wholesale tobacco house have been compelled to quit work, and the disease has affected choir singers. While the mortality list does not indicate a large number of deaths from la grippe directly, a great percentage of them have been largely dub to complications of influenza and chronic affections There wore thirtynlno more deaths during the last week than di ring the one p evious, ( r a total of 232, an increase of seventy over the same period last year. Of the 232 deaths seventeen were from bronchit s, sixtyfive from pneumonia, four from diphtheria and six from other respiratory diseases. Thirty-four < eaths were of persons under 1 year, flftytwo under 5 years, and sixty-four over 60 years. The increase in the deatt rate is principally among the latter, and an examination of the burial certificates shows that nearly all died from bronchitis or other respiratory dis ases. Many local physicians upon being interviewed say that the disease is contagious or infectious. Nearly ail are agreed that in form it is not as violent as it was last season; that the exposure of the person does not necessarily invito an attack, but that the malady seizes upon those whose systems are in poor condition.