In the history of influenza morbidity, as in that of its mortality, we must content ourselves for information prior to the nineteenth century with the very general estimates made by contemporary historians. During the last century the statistics have been more numerous and more nearly correct. As far back as the first recognized pandemic, 1510, the extremely high morbidity has been a recognized characteristic. Thomas Short in speaking of this pandemic says, “The disease ... attacked at once and raged all over Europe, not missing a family and scarce a person.” Pasquier in 1557 spoke of the disease as common to all individuals, and Valleriola describes the widespread distribution of the epidemic throughout the whole of France during that year. It spared neither sex, age, nor rank, neither children nor aged, rich nor poor. The mortality, however, was low, “children only, dying.” Again, Thomas Short remarks, “This disease seized most countries very suddenly when it entered, catching thousands the same moment.” Of the second pandemic, 1580, Short says, “Though all had it, few died in these countries except such as were let blood of, or had unsound viscera.” Thomas Sydenham remarks that in the epidemic of 1675 no one escaped, whatever might be his age or temperament, and the disease ran throughout whole families at once. Molineux recorded concerning 1693, “All conditions of persons were attacked, those residing in the country as well as those in the city; those who lived in the fresh air and those who kept to their rooms; those who were very strong and hardy were taken in the same manner as the weak and spoiled; men, women and children, persons of all ranks and stations in life, the youngest as well as the oldest.” Schrock tells us that in Augsburg in 1712 not a house was spared by the disease. According to Waldschmidt in Kiel, ten and more persons were frequently taken ill in one house, and Slevogt says that the disease was fearful because so many persons contracted it at the same time. The disease was, however, not dangerous, for Slevogt continues: “Fear soon vanished when it was seen that although it had spread all over the city, it left the sick with equal rapidity.” It is estimated that in the epidemic of 1729–1730, 60,000 people developed the disease in Rome, 50,000 in Mayence, and 14,000 in Turin. In London “barely one per cent. escaped.” In Lausanne one-half of the population, then estimated at 4,000, was stricken. In Vienna over 60,000 persons were affected. In the monasteries of Paris so many of the inmates were suffering from the disease that no services could be held. Huxham is quoted in Thomson’s “Annals” as declaring concerning the epidemic of 1732–33: “Not a house was free from it, the beggar’s hut and the nobleman’s palace were alike subject to its attack, scarce a person escaping either in town or country; old and young, strong and infirm, shared the same fate.”