THE GRIP

Davenport Times
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
June 2, 1900

The History of Grip
     The history of "grip" or influenza, can only be traced back, with any certainty, for 300 years. Perhaps its home is in Russia, it retains certain broad characteristics which make it recognizable even under such odd names as the "gentle correction" and the "new delight." A curious description of it under the name of "coqueluche" is found in the diary of Pierre de L'Estolla in the time of Henry III of France as follows:
     "The Coqueluche at Paris, year 1580.- From the 2d to the 8th day of June there fell sick at Paris 10,000 persons of an illness having the form of a rheum or catarrh, which they call the 'coqueluche.' This illness seizes you with a pain in the head, stomach and loins and a lassitude throughout the body, and it persecuted the whole kingdom of France while the year lasted, so that once having come hardly anybody in a town or village house escaped.
     "The best remedy the doctors found was to make the sick abstain from wine. To some they ordered bleeding and rhubarb, and others cassia, and finally they found it best to keep the sick in bed and allow them little to eat and drink. They say at Paris that of this 'coqueluche' there were dead at Rome, in less than three months, more than 10,000 persons."