The New York Times/1918/04/29/Crew's Illness a Puzzle

CREW'S ILLNESS A PUZZLE.

Hoboken Doctors Say Abruzzi's Men May Have Grippe.

The health authorities of Hoboken made an extensive investigation yesterday of the cause of the mysterious illness of thirty-two members of the crew of the Italian transport D'Abruzzi, lying at the Twelfth Street wharf, Hoboken. Sixteen of the crew are being treated at St. Mary's Hospital, Hoboken, and the Captain of the ship, Gaspari Fileti, is at Bellevue.

Proceeding on the hypothesis that the crew may have been poisoned as the result of some German plot, the health authorities conducted their investigation in that direction, but found no evidence to indicate the presence of a poison plot. The doctors working on the case are inclined to believe that those members of the crew who are in the hospital are suffering from the grippe.

Government officials who are conducting an independent investigation of the case would make public no conclusions yesterday, and indicated that they would not do so until they had had a report on the examination of the blood cultures which were taken yesterday of all the ailing men.