Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1890 — INFLUENZA IN AMERICA. [ARTICLE]

INFLUENZA IN AMERICA.

It is Spreading All Over the Country— Epidemic in Many Places. The number of persons in New York and Brooklyn suffering from influenza is very large and constantly increasing. In most cases the patient is subjected to severe muscular pains, catarrh, great debility, etc., with numerous concomitant discomforts, varying in different cases, some cases, running into affections of the bowels, and others to those of the lungs. While no instances of death directly from the disease have been noted, pneumonia has increased so remarkably as to indicate l some connection between the epidemic of so-called influenza ana pneumonia. There is hardly a business house or an office down town whose force of clerks has not been shortened more or less by la grippe. Quite a number of policemen and firemen are laid up. The same state of affairs exists in Brooklyn and Jersey City. The health boards of all three cities claim that there is no danger from the epidemic. When reminded that the disease is taking on a more serious form in Europe, they point to the lightness of the attacks, and say that the malady could graw much worse without becoming dangcrQUa tolife.-. Some of the members of the Pan-Ameri-can Congress have the disease. Senator Ingalls was attacked by the disease Frikay, and Saturday was compelled to take to his bed. Fifteen cases were reported at Chicago Saturday. Influenza, in a mild form is on the increase in Boston. Affections of the lungs have likewise greatly increased. A theatrical performance was postponed, Friday night, because several of the members of the company were affected. There are scores of cases at Columbus, Ohio. It prevails mostly among children and young folks, though several prominent politicians are sneezing to kill. Not less than 2,ooocases prevail in Philadelphia, rich and poor alike being affected. Thomas Amth, of Canton, Mass., died from the disease Saturday. He ventured out before he had recovered, and pneumonia developed. It has appeareu in Omaha to such an extent that two-thirds of the people are believed to be affected. Thirty cases are reported in the Baltimore postoffice. Dispatches from almost every Northern city east of the Rocky mountains tell of the appearance of influenza. In some places the disease is quite severe, but in the majority of towns reporting it is of a mild type. One-third of Paris, France, is affected and all of Europe is sneezing. The Czar is among the sufferers. Many deaths are reported.