Gary, Could be, but not necessarily. This was in the days before antibiotics and sanitation. Death was a common occurance. In Switzerland, the Bubonic Plague or Black Death struck in: the 14th century, along with other pestilencial diseases which included mainly typhus, smallpox, diphtheria, dysentery, enteric fever, etc. In 1348 almost two-thirds of the population of Europe contracted the plague and most of those died (Zinsser,H., "Rats, Lice and History," Boston, 1963,p.88). The plague, in this case is presumed to include the Bubonic Plague and those pestilencial deseases listed in the preceding paragraph. It continued its devastation thru 1349 as well. In 1361, half contracted these deseases and most succumbed. In 1371 one-tenth of the remaining population were struck but most survived. In 1382 one tenthg were affected but almost all survived. In 1528 Lautrec and his army of 28,000 had encircled Naples, Italy. In less than a month this army was reduced by typhus fever to less than 11,000 and Naples was saved. A siege of the German city of Metz in 1552 was called off when the army of Emperor Charles the Vth lost 10,000 men to typhus in one month. In 1542 a supporting army in the Turkish-Hungarian war lost 30,000 men to typhus in one month, and the campaign was abandoned. and on thru the 17th century which had several epidemics of one kind or another. The most recent European pandemic occured from 1663-1669. After this time, the epidemics of plague tended to become localized, with the last to strike Switzerland occuring in 1721. Typhus and the bubonic plague were caused by fleas endemic to the host species of black rat. In the early 1700's hordes of vicious brown rats almost succeded in exterminating the black rat. So much for the epidemics of those periods. Other epidemics came along which, together with starvation, continued to suppress the population in Switzerland, almost up until the present century. Suffice it to say, childhood was a pretty rough proposition and the death of two or three children in a family of eight or ten or more was not that unusual. Didn't have to be an epidemic. Just that many of the common childhood diseases of the day were untreatable by today's standards. Pete Mattli Ft. Myers, FL (USA)