Abstract
Abruptly, in April 2010, airline companies, insurers and politicians discovered that volcanic ash from Iceland could disrupt air traffic throughout western Europe. Like the Xynthia storm that had hit the west coast of France a few years previously, this was a totally "new" and completely unexpected scenario. However, archives of the French Royal Society of Medicine preserved in the library of the National Academy of Medicine, together with European parochial registers, showed that this event was perfectly predictable. Indeed, on 8 June 1783, the Icelandic volcano Laki entered an eruptive phase lasting nearly a year, spewing massive amounts of smoke which, within hours, was observed in France by correspondents of Vicq d'Azyr and by Father Cotte. These "sulfurous fogs", in addition to terrorizing the population, were quickly suspected of being harmful to health. This fear was amply confirmed by the mortality peak recorded by priests of France and Navarre
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