diet should consist chiefly of eggs, fish, milk, and
vegetables (with the exception of beans, large quantities of potatoes,
and roots, as parsnips, beets, turnips, etc.). Meat should be eaten
but sparingly, and also pastries, sugar, and starches (as cereals,
potato, and bread). The evening meal ought to be light, dinner being
served at midday. Any change of climate may stop asthmatic seizures
for a time, but the relief is apt to be temporary. Climatic conditions
affect different patients differently. Warm, moist air in places
destitute of much vegetation (as Florida, Southern California, and the
shore of Cape Cod and the Island of Nantucket, in summer) enjoy
popularity with many asthmatics, while a dry, high altitude influences
others much more favorably.

=INFLUENZA; LA GRIPPE.=--Influenza is an acute, highly contagious
disease due to a special germ, and tending to spread with amazing
rapidity over vast areas. It has occurred as a world-wide epidemic at
various times in history, and during four periods in the last century.
A pandemic of influenza began in the winter of 1889-90, and continued
in the form of local epidemics till 1904, the disease suddenly
appearing in a community and, after a prevalence of about six weeks,
disappearing again. One attack, it is, perhaps, unnecessary to state,
does not protect against another. The mortality is about 1 death to
400 cases. The feeble and aged are those who are apt to succumb.
Fatalities usually result from complications or sequels, such as
pneumonia or tuberculosis; neurasthenia or insanity may follow.

=Symptoms.=--There are commonly four important symptoms characteristic
of _grippe_: fever; pain, catarrh; and depression, mental and
physical. _Grippe_ attacks the patient with great suddenness. While in
perfect health and engaged in ordinary work, one is often seized with
a severe chill followed by general depression, pain in the head, back,
and limbs, soreness of the muscles, and fever. The temperature varies
from 100 deg. to 104 deg. F. The catarrh attacks the eyes, nose, throat, and
larger tubes in the lungs. The eyes become reddened and sensitive to
light, and movements of the eyeballs cause pain. Sneezing comes on
early, and, after a day or two, is followed by discharge from the
nose. The throat is often sore and reddened. There may be a feeling of
weight and tightness in the chest accompanied by a harsh, dry cough,
which, after a few days, becomes looser and expect