Читать книгу "The Flu". A brief history of influenza in U.S. America, Europe, Hawaii онлайн

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This disease repeatedly ravaged the then centers of dense population, Central Asia, Mesopotamia and Southern Asia, in the reigns of Tiglath Pileser (1120–00) and Nebuchadnezzar (605–562). The sickness affected the citizens of ancient Babylon; and the described features of the epidemics were such as we have today in those of Influenza, cough, headache, fever, pain in the eyeballs, and copious tears and water gushing from the nose, stained with blood or all blood. The Sanskrit historians gave the name “Plu” to the disease, probably from the flowing nasal discharge.

It is an uncanny coincidence, that our Hawaiian people, who are descended from the Indian branch of the Indo-European family of nations, use the softer letter p in pronouncing the shortened form of the word Influenza, Plu for Flu.

Unknowingly, the Hawaiians are using probably the word that their ancestors used 2,500 years ago in India on the banks of the river Sindhu or Indus.

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Before entering upon a description of the epidemics of Influenza, which have ravaged the various countries of the world, it is essential to explain the meanings of certain medical words used in connection with epidemic, contagious and infectious diseases.