oration occurs.
Bodily weakness and depression of spirits are usually prominent and
form often the most persistent and distressing symptoms.

After three or four days the pains decrease, the temperature falls,
and the cough and oppression in the chest lessen, and recovery usually
takes place within a week, or ten days, in serious cases. The patient
should go to bed at once, and should not leave it until the
temperature is normal (98-3/5 deg. F.). For some time afterwards general
weakness, associated with heart weakness, causes the patient to sweat
easily, and to get out of breath and have a rapid pulse on slight
exertion.

Such is the picture of a typical case, but it often happens that some
of the symptoms are absent, while others are exaggerated so that
different types of _grippe_ are often described. Thus the pain in the
back and head may be so intense as to resemble that of meningitis.
Occasionally the stomach and bowels are attacked so that violent
vomiting and diarrhea occur, while other members of the same family
present the ordinary form of influenza. There is a form that attacks
principally the nervous system, the nasal and bronchial tracts
escaping altogether. Continual fever is the only symptom in some
cases. _Grippe_ may last for weeks. Whenever doubt exists as to the
nature of the disorder, a microscopic examination of the expectoration
or of the mucus from the throat by a competent physician will
definitely determine the existence of influenza, if the special germs
of that disease are found. It is the prevailing and erroneous fashion
for a person to call any cold in the head the _grippe_; and there are,
indeed, many cases in which it becomes difficult for a physician to
distinguish between _grippe_ and a severe cold with muscular soreness
and fever, except by the microscopic test. Influenza becomes dangerous
chiefly through its complications, as pneumonia, inflammation of the
middle ear, of the eyes, or of the kidneys, and through its
depressing effect upon the heart.

These complications can often be prevented by avoiding the slightest
imprudence or exposure during convalescence. Elderly and feeble
persons should be protected from contact with the disease in every
way. Whole prisons have been exempt from _grippe_ during epidemics,
owing to the enforced seclusion of the inmates. The one absolutely
essential feature in treatment is that the patient stay in bed while
the fever lasts and in the house afte