Smallpox, the mark of which is seen in early portraits, emerges from the colonial record with a more reasonable history. Its incidence in Virginia during the first half of the seventeenth century was small, and this might be expected in view of the fact that there were few children in the colony and that most of the adults had been infected before they left the Old World. The number of smallpox epidemics in Virginia did increase--again, as might be expected--later in the century as the number of children and of native-born unimmunized adults multiplied. Smallpox caused such a scare in 1696 that the assembly, in session at Jamestown, asked for a recess--another example of the influence of disease upon political history. Earlier, in 1667, a sailor with smallpox, if the contemporary account can be accepted, landed at Accomack and was solely responsible for the outbreak of a terrible epidemic on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. A measles epidemic during the last decade of the century may actually have been smallpox as the two diseases were often confused by contemporaries. Respiratory disorders, as has been noted, caused much distress for great numbers of early Virginians during the winter months. Influenza, pneumonia, and pleurisy must have reached epidemic proportions on numerous occasions in Virginia as elsewhere in America (influenza epidemics are recorded for New England in 1647 and in 1697-99). One note from a Virginia source for the year 1688 describes "a fast for the great mortality (the first time the winter distemper was soe very fatal... the people dyed, 1688, as in a plague... bleeding the remedy, Ld Howard had 80 ounces taken from him...)." (If "Ld Howard" gave eighty ounces, it means that he lost five pints of blood from a body that contained approximately ten--perhaps the "letting" was over an extended period.) In a century in which numerous diseases had not been identified, many, known today, must have occurred that were diagnosed in general terms. Appendicitis, unrecognized until later, must have been common, and heart disease probably went undiagnosed. Distemper, a general term, often was used when the physician could not be more specific ("curing Eliza Mayberry and her daughter of the distemper"). Other prevalent disorders were over-eating ("hee died of a surfeit"); epilepsy ("desperately afflicted with the falling sicknesse soe that he requires continuall attendance"); and the winter cold ("our little boy & Molly have been both sicke with fever & colds, but are I thanke God now somewhat better").