VIGOROUS ACTION TO STAMP OUT GRIPPE

18 Deaths From Disease in Boston Yesterday

City Hospital Closed to Visitors for Indefinite Period

Since Monday morning at 9, 35 deaths from Spanish Influenza and 25 from pneumonia have been reported to the Boston Health Department. Of these, 18 from influenza and seven from pneumonia occurred yesterday.

There have been more than 200 cases at Boston City Hospital, which has been closed to visitors for an indefinite period by order of Acting Supt Edmund W. Wilson. Only in emergency cases will relatives of patients be admitted. Thirty-eight of the nurses are ill with grippe.

Prison Commissioner E. C. R. Bagley has issued an order prohibiting visitors at any of the penal institutions in the State. No cases of grippe have been reported at these places, but Commissioner Bagley says he is going to take no chances.

In the 1st Naval District

Rear Admiral Spencer S. Wood’s report for the 13 Naval stations in the 1st District yesterday showed a total of 2449 cases, with 49 deaths, for the period during which bulletins have been posted. . . .

In every hospital of Greater Boston grippe cases are being treated, and the scarcity of physicians and nurses, due to the enlistment of so many in this region for war service, has accentuated the seriousness of the situation.

Plan to Keep Boston Schools Open

Gloucester joined the places where public schools have been ordered closed until the danger is past. In Boston public schools 17 new cases were reported, bringing the total up to 50, and absentees in upper grades, many of whom are believed to be suffering in some degree from the grippe, is 40 percent, and in lower grades 30 percent.

Neither Dr William H Devine, medical director of the schools, nor Dr W. C. Woodward, City Health Commissioner, is in favor of closing Boston schools. They say that by remaining at their studies pupils are less likely to become affected, especially since teachers, school physicians and nurses are doing everything in their power to head off the epidemic.

Health Commissioner Woodward points out that no deaths have been reported among school children, and the teaching force remains intact.

In his opinion, the epidemic is not yet at its height, and he wards those who are suffering from slight cases to refrain from work until they are cured.

Dr Woodward advises people to remain outdoors as much as possible on warm, dry, sunny days. A half-hour’s sun bath, he says, means death to the germs. Plenty of exercise is also recommended by the commissioner.

Boston Globe, September 18, 1918.