Although influenza may be complicated by disturbances of the gastro-intestinal tract, many able clinicians have felt for some time that there is no true gastro-intestinal form of influenza in which the primary infection invades the alimentary canal. Boone1 described a clinical condition with abdominal symptoms, which is usually called intestinal influenza, perhaps for want of a better name. Zahorsky,2 McLean3 and Lucas4 described what is probably the same condition in children. Spencer5 studied similar cases in the national parks of the West during the summers of 1929 and 1930. He stated that the disorder is a summer disease; on the other hand, Zahorsky said that the cases studied by him occurred in winter, and he accordingly gave the disease the name hyperemesis hiemis (winter vomiting disease).
The present report is based on a study of a group of about 750 college students seen between September,