Annual Flu Germ Hits College, Yale

An influenza epidemic, which the Hygiene Department doctors report "is not serious," has forced Stillman Infirmary to open an extra ward.

The Infirmary would not release the actual number of students confined to its 115 beds, but it did admit that "a great many people" have registered in the building since the wave of influenza began, a week ago. The Infirmary is almost full now, except for a few rooms left open for an emergency.

At Yale, a fiercer "flu bug," which is actually a virus, hit the campus last week. The Health Department there called it the most serious since 1945 and inoculated over 1,000 undergraduates as a preventive.

Over three times the normal number of cases were admitted in one week. The university also had to send 20 students home and put beds in the visiting team quarters after the regular infirmary was filled.

Dr. Emmanuel Deutsch, physician to the Law School, said that such an epidemic is an annual spring event. It is variously called flu, grippe, or common cold, depending on how many people catch it.