Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1830-05-17
MEMOIR ON SMALL POx.
n. a.. aJbo,u Dniiu advertiser.

From, the Albany Daily .adUerf'ser.
Suu1pox.-We have read the Annual Az
aress delivered before the Medical Society OF the
State of New York. February 1880, by hom-
evn Beck. President of the Society. 10 say 'iiat
it is able. would be superfuous-lts author Is TOO
well known to require our approoauon
subject of the address is the Smallpox It's histo
~, and possibility of extinction, .a.
He saws that it is now generally conceded 'nat
this diease was unknown to the ancient ofeees
and Romans. The first medical account OF IL Is
given by the Arabans. Rhozes, a physician OF
Bagdad, in the beginning of the tenth century, Is
one of the oldest writer's on the disease whose
works are now eXtant. He however quotes early
er authors, from which it would appear that 1t was
introduced into Egypt by the armies OF omar'
the successors of Mahomet.
! It is supposed that this disease was brought into
Spain about the eighth century, by the Saracens,
and thus propaeated over Europe 1t was hrst
brought to this country Immediately after It's dis
coyeryby Columbus. st. Domingo, containing by
computation million of natives, was IN lew
wears deprived of the whole number, by the COM
bined effect Of the sword and this dreadful epldem-
! ic. Mexico lost. in very short time, upwards
of three millions of inhabitants; and Ill several
instances. whole tribes of Indians, n'Doth Amer
icas appear to have been nearly eXhngushed by us
ravages. In 1907, it destroyed, IN Iceland TO-
coo persons, being more than one-fourth OF lis IN
habitants In 1853, Greenland was almost de-
populated by it. =. :.
The practice Of incubation had its origin IN
eastern countries, and was introduced Into IN
stantinople when it was in use not only In As!at-
ic countries, but in Earbary. In IVA, DIR. i
monia. Greek physician, educated at Oxford.
but residing at Constantinople, first comnunica-
ted an account of the practice to the Royal Socie-
ty of London, and from the knowledge OF It's
advantages came to be spread through Europe.
The individual who more particularly attracted
the attention of the British public TO 1t, was Lady
Mary Wortley Montague, the wife OF the En-
glish ambassador at Constantinople. While there
in IVY, she caused her son to be inoculated,
and he had the disease mildly. When she re-
turned to England, in l77s, she had her daught-
er inocuated, and this was the first case in that
country: it was successful. Afterwards six
criminals under sentence of death, were offered
the alternative Of suffering according to their
sentence, or submitting to incubation They en-
braced the latter, were inoculated by MIR. Matt
land, 1.-THE physician of Lady Montague,) and all
passed favorably through the disease.
In America the practice was first introduced
By DR.. Boylston, of Boston, on his own child
In six months he inocuated 944 persons, but OF
these six died. When the death of an inoculated
person occurred in England there was much fer
ment incubation was denounced by the press
and from the pulpit. But on investigation it APP.
pearing that of those who had the natural small
pox, there died one in five or six, and of those
who were inc cuated only one in fifty, the fer
ment subsidized and the practice of inoculating
was extended. Subsequent improvements in the
mode of communicating the infection and oftreat-
hing the disease, made inoculated small pox fatal
only in about one case in two hundred
The loss of lives in Great Britain and Ireland,
from 177O to 1900, exceeded SIS. 200 annually.
In 1898, DIR. Jenner made the discovery of
the benefits of vaccine matter, in checking the
influence of small pox, and DIR. Beck gives some
instances of its happy effects. During the twelve
years preceding the practice of vaccination, $500
died of the small pox in Copenhagen alone, where
as, since its Introduction. 1sO2) down to 1903,
the deaths from it throughout the whole Danish
dominions, were only 1853.
Formerly 10000 died annually in the Prus-
sian dominions, of small pox. In 1917, only
2,490.
In Bavaria, in II years succeeding the promul-
CATION of severe laws requiring vaccination, only
five deaths happened from small pox, and l69,-
coo were vaccinated.