"
This hypothesis has certainly more facts in support of it now than it had
when Sir Thomas Watson gave utterance to it in 1837. And when another
epidemic of influenza occurs, we may look with some confidence to having
the hypothesis either refuted or confirmed by those engaged in the
systematic study of atmospheric bacteria. Among curious facts in
connection with influenza, quoted by Watson, is the following: "During
the raging of one epidemic, 300 women engaged in coal dredging at
Newcastle, and wading all day in the sea, escaped the complaint." Reading
this, the mind naturally turns to Dr. Blackley's glass slide exposed on
the shore at Filey, and upon which no pollen was deposited, while eighty
pollen grains were deposited on a glass at a higher elevation.
SMALL-POX.
Let us next inquire into the evidence regarding the conveyence of
small-pox through the air. In the supplement to the Tenth Report of the
Local Government Board for 1880-81 (c. 3,290) is a report by Mr. W.H.
Power on the influence of the Fulham, Hospital (for small-pox) on the
neighborhood surrounding it. Mr. Power investigated the incidence of
small-pox on the neighborhood, both before and after the establishment of
the hospital. He found that, in the year included between March, 1876,
and March, 1877, before the establishment of the hospital, the incidence
of small-pox on houses in Chelsea, Fulham and Kensington amounted to 0.
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