Influenza in Polish textbooks on infectious diseases from the second half of 19th century and the interwar period

Influenza, as a disease, is still relatively unknown to the general public, despite the fact that it has quite an extensive pedigree, both in terms of etymology – the history of the term itself – as well as the period when it first became recognizable as a specific type of ailment. The following analysis attempts to uncover the regularities connected with learning about this disease, which has been known to plague mankind since ancient times. Another interesting aspect – besides reaching the reason for the phrasing used – is the question of the naming convention, which developed in Europe, one could say, along with the disease itself, which in turn was often known to take the form of an epidemic or even escalating to a pandemic. This analysis is based on the first Polish medical textbooks describing infectious diseases, which started being published in the Congress Kingdom of Poland in 1870s. Moreover, it should be added that initially those books were published on the basis of foreign literature and were passed on to the Polish public through translations. However, from the beginning of the 20th century, textbooks by native authors, the first national specialists in this field, started being written. The last position used for the purposes of the above analysis is a publication entitled doctors), edited by Leon Karwacki and Feliks Malinowski, published in Warsaw in 3 volumes, two years before the outbreak of the Second World War, in the year 1937.

Influenza, as a disease, is still relatively unknown to the general public, despite the fact that it has quite an extensive pedigree, both in terms of etymology – the history of the term itself – as well as the period when it first became recognizable as a specific type of ailment. The following analysis attempts to uncover the regularities connected with learning about this disease, which has been known to plague mankind since ancient times. Another interesting aspect – besides reaching the reason for the phrasing used – is the question of the naming convention, which developed in Europe, one could say, along with the disease itself, which in turn was often known to take the form of an epidemic or even escalating to a pandemic. This analysis is based on the first Polish medical textbooks describing infectious diseases, which started being published in the Congress Kingdom of Poland in 1870s. Moreover, it should be added that initially those books were published on the basis of foreign literature and were passed on to the Polish public through translations. However, from the beginning of the 20th century, textbooks by native authors, the first national specialists in this field, started being written. The last position used for the purposes of the above analysis is a publication entitled doctors), edited by Leon Karwacki and Feliks Malinowski, published in Warsaw in 3 volumes, two years before the outbreak of the Second World War, in the year 1937.