Beating the flu: Orthodox and commercial responses to influenza in Britain, 1889-1919

Between 1889 and 1919, in Britain, successive influenza epidemics provoked public panic and professional concern. Doctors were unable to identify the aetiology of the infection or its means of transmission. Given professional passivity and initial symptoms that often resembled those of the common cold, many patients turned to over-the-counter products for prophylaxis and treatment. The use of these remedies was roundly condemned by doctors as quackery. But an examination of therapeutic discourse in the British Medical journal and The Lancet reveals not only confusion and lack of consensus, but also a range of treatments which were remarkably similar to the very commercial remedies doctors denounced. This article contends that commercial panaceas for influenza, such as Turkish baths, carbolic vapourizers, medicated wines, and anti-bacterial lozenges, provided relief that was in accordance with best professional advice.