of 537 from an average of 429 in February, and of 375 in January, falling
to an average of 417 in April. In Ireland the epidemic is said to have
been seen among the troops in garrisons as early as December, 1802; it
became universal in spring and summer. In Edinburgh the rise in the
burials at Greyfriars churchyard was in the weeks ending 5th and 12th
April, making them about a half more than usual for the brief period. When
the wave of influenza was past, the public health in nearly all places
became unusually good, as had happened immediately after the influenza of
1782.
The question most to the front in the influenza of 1803 was its manner of
spreading. Beddoes, who believed in personal contagion, had this in view
in his five queries: