It is characteristic of this
disease that it invades a whole city, or even a whole country, at "one
fell swoop," resembling in its sudden onset and its extent the potato
disease which we have been considering.
The mode of its spreading forbids us to attribute it, at least in any
material degree, although it may be partially so, to contagion in the
ordinary sense, i.e., contagion passing from person to person along the
lines of human intercourse. It forbids us also to look at community of
water supply or food, or the peculiarities of soil, for the source of the
disease virus. We look, naturally, to some atmospheric condition for the
explanation. That the atmosphere is the source of the virus is made more
likely from the fact that the disease has broken out on board ship in a
remarkable way. In 1782, there was an epidemic, and on May 2 in that
year, says Sir Thomas Watson--
"Admiral Kempenfelt sailed from Spithead with a squadron, of which the
Goliah was one. The crew of that vessel were attacked with influenza on
May 29, and the rest were at different times affected; and so many of the
men were rendered incapable of duty by this prevailing sickness, that the
whole squadron was obliged to return into port about the second week in
June, not having had communication with any port, but having cruised
solely between Brest and the Lizard.
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