Influenza Pandemic

"The March of Influenza" is what Nature calls the pandemic which, first evident in the U. S. (TIME, Dec. 12 et seq.). has spread over Europe. Between the continents it hit the Cameronia, put 500 passengers to berth, killed none. Off England last week the entire crew of a fishing smack caught the disease, but kept to sea until they exhausted their rum & quinine. French battleships Paris and Jean Bart reported most of their personnel disabled.

Great Britain had suffered most up to last week. Mrs. Kate Meyrick, 60, night club mistress, jailbird, mother-in-law of lords, died last week. Dead too were Aviatrix Winifred Spooner and more than 1,000 others in England & Wales within the week. Southampton, Birmingham, Glasgow, London suffered severely. London had 1,100 postal workers sick abed. Leeds curtailed its street car service and could not get its gas meters read. A London bride with a 30-ft. train to her gown lost, at the last hour, a bridesmaid. At Oxford a coroners' jury could not determine the cause of a violent death because all the jurymen and most of the witnesses had influenza. At Whittingham bailiffs were obliged to hunt substitutes for the police magistrates, all of whom were ill.

Ill lay Prince George, youngest royal child.

Ill in Wales lay David Lloyd George, his wife, Son Major Gwilym, Daughter Megan. Meticulously he also reported: "Two of my gardeners and one secretary are also bowled over."

In Wales Lanrwst had to cancel their Welsh Combination game with Lanfairfechan, most of their players being ill with influenza. In the Vale of Conway League Pentregwyddel had to cancel their game with Colwyn Bay Comrades for the same reason, and Mochdre had to cancel their game with Dolwyddelen. Colwyn Bay also had several of their team ill with influenza.

At Doom lay ill the onetime Kaiser. Gottingen, with a third of its pupils ill, closed all schools. Brunswick closed part of its schools. Nuremburg and Hamburg had heavy morbidity.

Ill lay James John Walker at Cape Ferrat, French Riviera, but not too ill to chirp: "Do I eat like I was sick or dead?" Edna Ferber, infected in London, convalesced at nearby Nice. In Paris the American Hospital opened two special wards to care for numerous LL S. victims. Forehanded Paris undertakers formally declared that they were short of coffins.

Ill lay Lady Mary Bailey, English flyer, at Tahoua, French West Africa. She had been trying to fly from England to Cape Town, was for several days thought killed.

The U. S. last week seemed purging itself of influenza. The epidemic, which began in the South and Southwest, marked its peristaltic movement northeastward by a death toll increasing week by week: 807, 1,123, 1,327, 1,568, 1.775. Last week, however, only the Great Lakes region and New England had much to fear from the disease.

Ill in San Francisco lay California's Governor James Rolph. infected at Sacramento. Ill in Manhattan lay Howard Scott, Chief Technocrat, whose wife (Eleanor Steele) attributes his disability to Technocracy.

Current influenza is much milder than the devastating disease of 1918. Epidemiologists have been unable to discern rhythm or reason to these surges. In England the Press, having noted an unseasonable amount of rain, fog and snow over North Europe, blames raw weather.

The influenza pandemic last week elicited news of other epidemics: In Great Britain, foot & mouth disease among cattle; in South Dakota respiratory disease among dogs; in Russia "Epidemic No. 200," Sovietism for typhoid.

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