Pneumonia in pregnancy is made worse by the mechanical interference with respiration brought about by the enlargement of the uterus, and the heart, which is overburdened in ordinary pneumonia, is still more exhausted by the additional strain of pregnancy in the pneumonia of gestation; moreover, the lungs, which are obliged to do enhanced labor in pregnancy in eliminating, are clogged by the pneumonia; it would seem, then, that, if the fetus is viable, the womb should be emptied to give the mother a better chance for recovery. Statistics, however, are against therapeutic abortion. The evacuation of the uterus determines blood to the inflamed lungs, which are already overburdened. The exhaustion of labor weakens the patient, and makes her liable to general septic infection. Matton[144] found that in eighteen cases where pregnancy was artificially interrupted, nine women died (50 per cent.); while in twenty cases where no interference was attempted, only one woman died. This comparison is not exact, perhaps, because we do not know the gravity of the infection in each group, but in any consideration the difference is remarkable. In a group studied by Chatelain[145] the results in natural and artificial delivery were virtually the same. Inasmuch as therapeutic abortion at the best is no better than non-interference, there is no justification for therapeutic abortion, unless in unusual circumstances. [144] _Jour. de Méd. de Bruxelles_, 1872, p. 412. [145] _Ibid._, 1870, vol. l, pp. 430, 516, and vol. li, p. 11. Pneumonia is an infectious disease, and a pregnant woman should, for her own sake and the sake of the fetus, avoid exposure to infection. When the disease is present the last sacraments should not be deferred, as it may be impossible to make a confession when near death. Influenza in pregnancy is more severe than it is in the non-gravid state. By the laity, and sometimes even by physicians, influenza is confused with la grippe, but there is an influenza vera and an influenza nostras, or la grippe, and this latter is not nearly so serious a disease. The real influenza is caused by a specific bacillus; it appears in epidemics which have a tendency to become pandemic, and then the disease disappears for a generation. La grippe is a bronchitis or coryza with some fever and muscle-soreness. True influenza (the name is Italian, _influenza di freddo_) is very infectious. The pandemic of 1889-90 started in Turkestan in June, 1889, and by October, 1890, influenza had gone westward and encircled the earth along the trade routes. The preceding pandemic occurred in 1847-48.