The art of medicine 'An inexpressible dread': psychoses of influenza at fin-de-siecle

摘要

In June, 1895, The Strand Magazine, a periodical best known for its stories about a certain pipe-smoking Baker Street detective, published a tale about a London physician, Clifford Halifax, and his encounter with a promising young medical colleague named Arthur Feveral. The story opens in the winter of 1893 with Halifax returning home to find Feveral waiting in his hallway. His practice is in the grip of an influenza epidemic and Feveral appears to have suffered "some sort of collapse". It soon emerges that his baby daughter has died of influenza and that he has also suffered an attack of the "awful plague". But it is not this that has brought him to Halifax's door. "The influenza has left an extraordinary sequel behind", he explains. "I have an inexpressible dread over me. By no means in my power can I drive it away."