The Russian Influenza in the United Kingdom, 1889–1894

The pandemic of severe influenza known in western Europe as the Russian flu, with its associated infections, caused extensive morbidity and high general mortality. In the United Kingdom, as elsewhere, sufferers and their doctors were hard put to explain the visitation and resorted to analogies with...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social history of medicine : the journal of the Society for the Social History of Medicine 1995-04, Vol.8 (1), p.55-73
Main Author: SMITH, F. B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anomie
Biology
Depression - history
Disease Outbreaks - history
Diseases
epidemic constitution
Epidemiology
fin de siècle
History of medicine
History of science and technology
History, 19th Century
Humans
influenza
Influenza, Human - history
Life sciences
Medicine
surgery
pharmacy
miasmic contagion
Microbiology
parasitology
Pathology
Pfeiffer's bacillus
post-influenzal depression
Russian influenza
suicide
United Kingdom
Viral diseases
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The pandemic of severe influenza known in western Europe as the Russian flu, with its associated infections, caused extensive morbidity and high general mortality. In the United Kingdom, as elsewhere, sufferers and their doctors were hard put to explain the visitation and resorted to analogies with physical or bacteriological phenomena, or recalled older beliefs in extra-terrestrial forces. The outcomes were more disturbing than was appreciated at the time, or since. The Russian influenza and its sequelae might well have had a crucial part in creating the ‘spirit of the 1890s’.
ISSN:0951-631X
1477-4666
DOI:10.1093/shm/8.1.55