“Sixty-nine new cases, with one death, during
the past twenty-four hours, gave sample evidence that, despite rigid
precautionary measures of the board of health and Hamilton Medical Association,
the dreaded influenza was sweeping the length and breadth of the city.”
Hamilton Spectator. October 09, 1918
With astonishing rapidity,
the Spanish Influenza concern had indeed become, by October 8, 1918 in
Hamilton, a full epidemic.
That day’s report from the
Hamilton Board of Health showed that of the 69 new cases reported, the cases
were from 65 families, with a worrisome increase in the percentage of sufferers
under 10 years of age.
In response, a conference
involved board of health officials and representatives from the Hamilton
Medical association, the following ‘don’ts’ were agreed upon and publicized for
the public’s information:
VISITING BANNED
“Visiting the house of
refuge, home for the aged, and institutions where children are cared for, was
ordered stopped immediately.
“Steps will be taken this
afternoon to have the children’s section of the public library closed until the
epidemic has been fought out of the city.
“The east end military
hospital will be utilized for the care of civilian patients, and arrangements
are being made for a supply of cots and blankets. An effort will also be made
to secure additional ambulance accommodation.
MASKS RECOMMENDED
“Arrangements are being made
to have balbriggan masks manufactured and placed on sale in department stores,
it being discovered that these are much more effective than the cheese cloth
masks first proposed. These masks, it was pointed out by the medical men today,
should be sterilized every few hours by a hot iron. Care should also be taken
to see that the same side of the mask is turned to the face each time it is
worn.
“To assist the medical men
and to educate the public, five thousand copies of Dr. Roberts’ Do’s and Don’ts
will be distributed this afternoon. It is planned to put one in every home in
the city, that parents will know what steps to take the moment an incipient
case is detected.”1
1 “Sixty-Nine New Influenza Cases Reported Today
: Ban Now On Visiting of Public Institutions : To Close Juvenile Section of
Public Library : Hundreds of Cots and Blankets Ordered”
Hamilton Spectator. October 09, 1918
At that same meeting, one
physician was forceful in stating his concerns about the Hamilton Public
Library and the potential spread of the influenza problem:
“Dr. Storms, at the conference at noon, called
attention the danger of leaving the children’s section of the public library
open. He had positive knowledge, he said, that children in the incipient stage
of influenza had taken books from the library. His suggestion that the ban be put
on was unanimously endorsed.”1
The spread of the flu virus
was starting to have an impact on Hamilton schools:
“Today the epidemic began to
take toll from the teaching staffs of the public schools. Four of the teachers
of the Robert Land school and four members of the staff of the King George
school were reported to have contracted the ailment.
“Yesterday afternoon, Dr.
Roberts addressed a number of Sunday school teachers, urging them to lend their
co-operation and report suspect cases immediately.”1
In the Spectator of October
9, 1918, there was an announcement that the Hamilton Medical Society, composed
of Hamilton doctors, would no longer be represented at Hamilton Board of Health
meetings regarding the epidemic:
“Daily conferences of the
board of health and medical men will be discontinued. At the meeting today, Dr. Huerner Mullin
pointed out that attendance on patients was demanding practically all of the
time of the medical men and that suggestions which the physicians might want to
make could be forwarded to the board of health. Dr. Mullen also recommended
that the women’s organizations might be interested in the battle against the
epidemic.
“On behalf of the board,
Chairman Norman Clark thanked the medical men for the unflagging energy they
had lent in the fight against the scourge. Dr. Roberts, medical health officer,
also expressed his appreciation of the co-operation of the physicians.”1
Although the announcement
seemed reasonable enough, it actually did not address many issues that had
arisen between the city’s private physicians and the government mandated role
of the Hamilton Board of Health. As well as jurisdiction efforts, there were
personality clashes as physicians, medical health officer plus first responders
were all starting to become unfrayed.
The Herald account of the
meeting carried the following on the growing divide between the board of health
and the city’s physicians:
“At a joint meeting of the board of health and
representatives of the Medical association held in the city council chamber at
noon today, and presided over by Norman Clark, it was decided that in future
the board of health and the Medical association shall hold separate
conferences, the latter submitting its recommendations regularly to the board
of health.
“Dr. J. Huerner,
representing the Medical association, stated that the doctors of the city had
no intention of interfering with what was only board of health work. They only
offered such services as were acceptable, and were willing to continue to do
everything in their power to assist the board of health.
“ ‘It isn’t fair to call
doctors here every day at a special hour. We are working from morning until
night fighting this thing, and it really isn’t fair to call them here
unnecessarily,’ said Dr. Mullen.”2
2 “ ‘Flu’ Epidemic Shows No Sign of Abatement :
Nearly Seventy Cases Reported Here Since Yesterday : Doctors and Health
Authorities to Distribute Literature”
Hamilton Herald. October 09, 1918.
There was some direct communication with reporters at the meeting :
There was some direct communication with reporters at the meeting :
“Ban Public Funerals of the
Victims”
Hamilton Spectator. October 09, 1918
“ ‘There has never been an
epidemic curbed and never will be,’ said Chairman Norman Clark at noon today.
‘Preventive measures do some good, but this influenza plague will stay until it
is ready to depart – and not before.’
“Chairman Clark added that
he didn’t want this construed to mean that people could afford to take chances.
“Coupled with this official
assertion today was the announcement of Dr. Roberts, medical health officer,
that people were throwing good money away on patent preventives that might be
used to buy food – and that did more harm than good.
“ ‘It has come to my
attention that camphor squares are being worn around the neck, that people are
saturating themselves with eucalyptus, using great quantities of medical
lozenges and spraying their throats with various solutions,’ said the doctor.
‘All poppy-cock and superstition. And these things are doing more harm than
good. They are interfering with the natural secretion which is Dame Nature’s
own preventive. They are annoying organs that are in perfect health, and making
them unfit to counteract the influenza germ when it does gain entrance into the
system.’
“ ‘Is there nothing that can
be said in favor of eucalyptus as a preventive?’ the medical health officer was
asked, this being the drug most in demand.
“ ‘Absolutely nothing,’ was
the reply. ‘The only preventive is obstruction, which is provided by a mask.’
“Dr. Roberts further
advocated today the discontinuance of public funerals, where influenza has been
the cause of death. There is great danger, he pointed out, in the congregation
of large numbers of people in homes where there has been influenza coughing and
sneezing.
“ ‘I do not like to ban
public funerals, but such a measure would be a preventive,’ he said.
“Again today, twenty per
cent of the new cases were in children under 10 years of age. So far as can be
learned, Hamilton’s death rate, as a result of the epidemic, has been as low as
that of any other city on the continent, and lower than in many of the places
where the scourge is prevalent.
“ ‘Keep the patient warm
until the fever abates – and KEEP HIM IN BED for forty-eight hours after he
insists that he is in perfect health,’ is the medical health officer’s message
to the public.
"
"
“ ‘It is absolutely
imperative that dances, parties, patriotic teas and everything else of this
description be postponed until the danger is passed,’ was the statement issued
by the medical health officer this morning. ‘At such affairs are found the
worst conditions possible for spreading the disease,’ he added. ‘Crowding,
becoming overheated and remaining for several hours in a superheated atmosphere
is highly dangerous and must be avoided.’ ”
“Fight ‘Flu’ With Liquor :
Relaxation Proposed in the Temperance Act”
Hamilton
Spectator. October 09, 1918
“Officers
of the medical society deny the published statements that a fee of $2 has been
agreed upon for liquor prescriptions. ‘Among the majority of physicians,’ said
one doctor this morning, the fee is the same for prescribing liquor as for any
other medicine, which in most offices is $1. Some of the few doctors who have
been issuing orders on the liquor dispensary to satisfy appetite, not
prescribing liquor for medicinal purposes, may have raised their fee from $1 to
$2, but there are very few of these. Of course, there were some physicians who
always made a charge of $1.50 or $2 for a consultation and prescription.
“There has
been a considerable increase in business at the local liquor dispensary, as a
result of Spanish influenza, and many physicians who issued a few liquor
prescriptions up to last week, have loosened up and given orders for whisky,
believing it is beneficial for stimulating the heart action of debilitated
persons, or persons weakened by influenza or grippe.
“From Ottawa word comes that the
suggestion has been made to the government to temporarily lift the ban on
liquor, but as yet it hasn’t been considered by the cabinet."
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