Influenza

UNITED STATES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE.
RUPERT BLUE, SURGEON GENERAL.
“SPANISH INFLUENZA”—“THREE-DAY FEVER”
“THE FLU.”

United States Public Health Service. Rupert Blue, Surgeon General. “Spanish Influenza”—“Three-Day Fever”—“The Flu.”

The Spanish influenza pandemia which is encircling the globe and claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands, aye, of millions of people, presents a problem before which the medical profession stands baffled. A multitude of hypotheses have been offered as a basis for as many methods of treating the plague, but the disease runs its course unchecked. Thus far the medical faculty of the world has not even succeeded in defining the nature of the disease. The first problem, therefore, at least the first aspect of the problem, is to ascertain the nature of the disease, to uncover its underlying cause, in order that we may have a scientific foundation on which to base our diagnosis and our treatment of it.

The Spanish influenza pandemia which is encircling the globe and claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands, aye, of millions of people, presents a problem before which the medical profession stands baffled. A multitude of hypotheses have been offered as a basis for as many methods of treating the plague, but the disease runs its course unchecked. Thus far the medical faculty of the world has not even succeeded in defining the nature of the disease. The first problem, therefore, at least the first aspect of the problem, is to ascertain the nature of the disease, to uncover its underlying cause, in order that we may have a scientific foundation on which to base our diagnosis and our treatment of it.

「用心しなければいけませんよ。火事の時なんか、駈け出したりなんかするといけません。この間も、元町に火事があった時、水道橋で衝心を起して死んだ男がありましたよ。呼びに来たから、行って診察しましたがね。非常に心臓が弱い癖に家から十町ばかりも駈け続けたらしいのですよ。貴君なんかも、用心をしないと、いつコロリと行くかも知れませんよ。第一喧嘩なんかをして興奮しては駄目ですよ。熱病も禁物ですね。チフスや流行性感冒に罹って、四十度位の熱が三四日も続けばもう助かりっこはありませんね。」

“You must be careful. When there’s a fire, for instance, you mustn’t go running out. Not long ago, when there was a fire in Motomachi, a man’s heart failed at Suidōbashi, and he died. They called me, so I went and examined him. His heart was very weak, and yet it seems he had run all the way from his house, about ten chō [over half a mile]. If you’re not careful, you could drop dead any time, too. Above all, don’t get into quarrels and get excited. And fevers are dangerous. If you catch typhoid or influenza and run a fever of about 40 degrees [104°F] for three or four days, there’ll be no saving you.”

こうした診察を受けて以来、生命の安全が刻々に脅かされて居るような気がした。殊に、ちょうどその頃から、流行性感冒が猛烈な勢で流行りかけて来た。医者の言葉に従えば、自分が流行性感冒に罹ることは、即ち死を意味して居た。その上、その頃新聞に頻々と載せられた感冒に就いての、医者の話の中などにも、心臓の強弱が、勝負の別れ目と云ったような、意味のことが、幾度も繰り返されて居た。

After that examination, I felt that my life was in danger every moment. Especially because, just around then, the influenza began to spread with terrible force. If the doctor was right, catching it would mean death for me. What was more, the doctors’ talks on the influenza that the newspapers printed again and again at that time kept repeating the same idea: a strong or a weak heart decided who lived and who died.

自分は感冒に対して、脅え切ってしまったと云ってもよかった。自分は出来るだけ予防したいと思った。最善の努力を払って、罹らないように、しようと思った。他人から、臆病と嗤われようが、罹って死んでは堪らないと思った。

You could say I was terrified of the influenza. I wanted to protect myself as much as I could. I meant to do my very best not to catch it. People might laugh at me for a coward, but I could not bear the thought of catching it and dying.

毎日の新聞に出る死亡者数の増減に依って、自分は一喜一憂した。日ごとに増して行って、三千三百三十七人まで行くと、それを最高の記録として、僅かばかりではあったが、段々減少し始めたときには、自分はホッとした。が、自重した。二月一杯は殆ど、外出しなかった。友人はもとより、妻までが、自分の臆病を笑った。自分も少し神経衰弱の恐病症に罹って居ると思った。が、感冒に対する自分の恐怖は、どうにもまぎらすことの出来ない実感だった。

My hopes and fears rose and fell with the number of deaths printed in the newspaper every day. The number grew day by day until it reached 3,337. That was the highest. When it began to fall, little by little, I was relieved. But I stayed careful. Through all of February I hardly went out. My friends, and even my wife, laughed at my cowardice. I thought I might have a touch of hypochondria from neurasthenia. But my fear of the influenza was a real feeling that nothing could take my mind off.

三月に、入ってから、寒さが一日々々と、引いて行くに従って、感冒の脅威も段々衰えて行った。もうマスクを掛けて居る人は殆どなかった。が、自分はまだマスクを除けなかった。

In March, as the cold eased day by day, the threat of influenza slowly faded too. Hardly anyone wore a mask anymore. But I still did not take mine off.

三月の終頃まで、自分はマスクを捨てなかった。もう、流行性感冒は、都会の地を離れて、山間僻地へ行ったと云うような記事が、時々新聞に出た。が、自分はまだマスクを捨てなかった。もう殆ど誰も付けて居る人はなかった。が、偶に停留場で待ち合わして居る乗客の中に、一人位黒い布片で、鼻口を掩うて居る人を見出した。自分は、非常に頼もしい気がした。ある種の同志であり、知己であるような気がした。自分は、そう云う人を見付け出すごとに、自分一人マスクを付けて居ると云う、一種のてれくさゝから救われた。自分が、真の意味の衛生家であり、生命を極度に愛惜する点に於て一個の文明人であると云ったような、誇をさえ感じた。

I did not give up my mask until near the end of March. By then the newspapers ran stories now and then saying the influenza had left the cities and gone off into remote mountain districts. But I still did not give up my mask. Hardly anyone else wore one by now. But once in a while, among the passengers waiting at a streetcar stop, I would find one person with nose and mouth covered by a black cloth. That made me feel very reassured. He seemed a kind of comrade, a kindred spirit. Each time I found someone like that, I was saved from the embarrassment of being the only one in a mask. I even felt a kind of pride, as if I were a true follower of hygiene, a civilized man who valued life to the utmost.

四月となり、五月となった。遉の自分も、もうマスクを付けなかった。ところが、四月から五月に移る頃であった。また、流行性感冒が、ぶり返したと云う記事が二三の新聞に現われた。自分は、イヤになった。四月も五月もになって、まだ充分に感冒の脅威から、脱け切れないと云うことが、堪らなく不愉快だった。

April came, then May. Even I no longer wore a mask. But around the turn from April to May, two or three newspapers ran stories saying the influenza had come back. I was sick of it. That even in April and May we were still not quite free of the threat of influenza was more unpleasant than I could stand.

此の男が、不快だった第一の原因は、こんなよい天気の日に、此の男に依って、感冒の脅威を想起させられた事に違なかった。それと同時に、自分が、マスクを付けて居るときは、偶にマスクを付けて居る人に、逢うことが嬉しかったのに、自分がそれを付けなくなると、マスクを付けて居る人が、不快に見えると云う自己本位的な心持も交って居た。が、そうした心持よりも、更にこんなことを感じた。自分がある男を、不快に思ったのは、強者に対する弱者の反感ではなかったか。あんなに、マスクを付けることに、熱心だった自分迄が、時候の手前、それを付けることが、どうにも気恥しくなって居る時に、勇敢に傲然とマスクを付けて、数千の人々の集まって居る所へ、押し出して行く態度は、可なり徹底した強者の態度ではあるまいか。とにかく自分が世間や時候の手前、やり兼ねて居ることを、此の青年は勇敢にやって居るのだと思った。此の男を不快に感じたのは、此の男のそうした勇気に、圧迫された心持ではないかと自分は思った。

The main reason he annoyed me must have been that, on such a fine day, he reminded me of the threat of influenza. Mixed in, too, was a selfish feeling. When I wore a mask, I had been glad to meet the rare person who wore one too; now that I had stopped, people in masks looked unpleasant to me. But beyond those feelings I sensed something more. Was my dislike of this man the resentment the weak feel toward the strong? Even I, who had been so eager to wear a mask, now felt too embarrassed to wear one, because of the season. And here he was, boldly and proudly wearing his mask, pushing his way into a place where thousands of people had gathered. Wasn’t that the attitude of a truly strong man? At any rate, I thought, this young man was bravely doing what I could not bring myself to do, because of the season and what people would think. I wondered whether I disliked him because I felt crushed by his courage.

The fourth canvas is quite as large as the others. I see hundreds of young, stalwart men in the uniform of their country coming into the wards of the hospital in groups of ten or more. They are placed on the cots until every bed is full and yet others crowd in. The faces soon wear a bluish cast; a distressing cough brings up the blood stained sputum. In the morning the dead bodies are stacked about the morgue like cord wood. This picture was painted on my memory cells at the division hospital, Camp Devens, in 1918, when the deadly influenza demonstrated the inferiority of human inventions in the destruction of human life.

The fourth canvas is quite as large as the others. I see hundreds of young, stalwart men in the uniform of their country coming into the wards of the hospital in groups of ten or more. They are placed on the cots until every bed is full and yet others crowd in. The faces soon wear a bluish cast; a distressing cough brings up the bloodstained sputum. In the morning the dead bodies are stacked about the morgue like cordwood. This picture was painted on my memory cells at the division hospital, Camp Devens, in 1918, when the deadly influenza demonstrated the inferiority of human inventions in the destruction of human life.

In August, 1918, Colonels F. F. Russell, William H. Welch, Rufus Cole and I made an inspection trip through the camps in the Southern States. With the memory of the visit to Asheville, North Carolina, in 1898, in mind, I proposed that we stop in that region for a few days, which we did. But there I contracted a most severe coryza. We reached Washington one Sunday morning and I went directly to the Surgeon General’s office, where General Richard was officiating, as General Gorgas was in Europe. Scarcely looking up from his papers the general said, as I entered the door: "You will proceed immediately to Devens. The Spanish influenza has struck that camp." Then, laying aside his papers and looking into my suffused eyes, he said: "No, you will go home and go to bed." I took the next train for Camp Devens and arrived early the next morning. I am not going into the history of the influenza epidemic. It encircled the world, visited the remotest corners, taking toll of the most robust, sparing neither soldier nor civilian, and flaunting its red flag in the face of science.

In August 1918, Colonels F. F. Russell, William H. Welch, Rufus Cole and I made an inspection trip through the camps in the Southern States. With the memory of the visit to Asheville, North Carolina, in 1898 in mind, I proposed that we stop in that region for a few days, which we did. But there I contracted a most severe coryza. We reached Washington one Sunday morning, and I went directly to the Surgeon General’s office, where General Richard was officiating, as General Gorgas was in Europe. Scarcely looking up from his papers, the general said, as I entered the door: “You will proceed immediately to Devens. The Spanish influenza has struck that camp.” Then, laying aside his papers and looking into my suffused eyes, he said: “No, you will go home and go to bed.” I took the next train for Camp Devens and arrived early the next morning. I am not going into the history of the influenza epidemic. It encircled the world, visited the remotest corners, taking toll of the most robust, sparing neither soldier nor civilian, and flaunting its red flag in the face of science.