A quarter of all the women who died in Paris were maids

Statisticians were foxed by their observation that the highest death rates in the French capital were recorded in the wealthiest neighbourhoods, until they realised who was dying there. The ones coughing behind the grand Haussmannian facades weren’t the owners on the étage noble, but the servants in the chambres de bonne. As Theresa McBride explained in her book, The Domestic Revolution, ‘Close enough to their employers’ apartments on the floors below, the servants were segregated into a society of their own where they need not be seen but could be easily summoned.’ They worked fifteen-to-eighteen-hour days and often had to share their sleeping spaces with other servants. ‘The servant’s room was generally small, with sloping ceilings, dark, poorly ventilated, unheated, dirty, lacking privacy or even safety,’ wrote McBride. The flu may have been democratic, as one French historian pointed out, but the society it struck was not: a quarter of all the women who died in Paris were maids.

L. Spinney, Pale Rider (2017), loc.2,892

But on every other continent – with the possible exception of Antarctica, which both disasters left pristine – more died of flu than war

War was undoubtedly the main event on that continent [Europe]: France lost six times more souls to the war than to the flu, while in Germany the multiple was four, in Britain three and in Italy two. But on every other continent – with the possible exception of Antarctica, which both disasters left pristine – more died of flu than war.

L. Spinney, Pale Rider (2017), loc.117

Not until the beginning of the 20th century did Europe's urban populations finally become self-sustaining

Not until the beginning of the 20th century did Europe's urban populations finally become self-sustaining: before then, constant immigration of healthy peasants from the countryside was necessary to make up for the constant deaths of city dwellers from crowd diseases.

J. Diamond, Guns Germs and Steel (1997), 197

Most of these have now left most of us, thanks to antibiotics, plumbing, civilization, and money

Until a few decades ago, bacteria were a genuine household threat, and although most of us survived them, we were always aware of the nearness of death. We moved, with our families, in and out of death. We had lobar pneumonia, meningococcal meningitis, streptococcal infections, diphtheria, endocarditis, enteric fevers, various septicemias, syphilis, and, always, everywhere, tuberculosis. Most of these have now left most of us, thanks to antibiotics, plumbing, civilization, and money, but we remember.

L. Thomas, 'Germs', The Lives of a Cell (1974), 76