"The Flu": a brief history of influenza in U.S. America, Europe, Hawaii

by A. A. St. M. Mouritz

U. S. America, began in month of May.

1775–6

Spread from Europe to U. S. A. (Authority, Gluge.)

1780–1

January, 1780, started in France.

1781–2.

PANDEMIC IV. Very severe, widespread. Began in the autumn of 1781 on the borders of China and India, thence spread to Russia and U. S. A.

In 1782 appeared in western Europe; the name given in this Pandemic was RUSSIAN CATARRH.

The British fleet sailed from the Channel ports, Plymouth and Portsmouth, on May 6, 1782. No further contact was had with the land, yet on the 27th of May the Flu broke out on the fleet.

**(The presence of Flu carriers on the ships, or infected stores, clothes and other fomites and only opened after a week or two at sea; also the Flu being epidemic at the ports of departure, will amply account for this alleged miracle) (Author.)