Downstairs, the doctor left three different medicines in differentcolored
capsules with instructions for giving them. One was to bring
down the fever, another a purgative,2
the third to overcome an acid
condition. The germs of influenza can only exist in an acid condition,
he explained. He seemed to know all about influenza and said there was
nothing to worry about if the fever did not go above one hundred and
four degrees. This was a light epidemic of flu and there was no danger
if you avoided pneumonia.