Mountain Democrat. [volume] (Placerville, El Dorado Co., Cal.) 1854-1860, 1860-03-31
NUMBER 8.
THE SMALLPOX.

covery, no longer alarming disease, still lingeER
in the city, and among the people Of the neigh
boring cities and towns. II Is most assuredly
astonishing to the last degree, that there can
yet be found amongst US persons, full grown,
otherwise intelligent and sufficiently prOVident,
who are so unwise, foolhardy, or 80 full Of
sheer prejudice, as to refuse or neglect to avail
themselves Of the only perfect preventive
known to man Of this terrible malady, namely
rdcciRation Bnt it is nevertheless only too
true, that there are such persons "a very limit.
ed number, let us hope) yet among US, furnish;
ing material in their own bodies to sustain and
perpetuate this dreadful scourge.
The origin Of the small. pox dates very far
back. 1t may be, so far as Is kif0WT; TOCvEf
with man himself Hundreds Of years ago it
ragged in China, and that wonderful people, for
the purpose Of modifying its power upon tine
system, reSOrted to a practice which seems
strange enough to us at this day. 1t seems
they took the dried scabs from off the bodies
Of the diseased, and after grinding them into
n fine powder mixed this material with some
more agreeable, probably aromatic substance,
and administered this compound in the form
of snuff through the nose.
The first innOculatiOn for the smallpox by
inciSiOn in the arm, was practiced by the Cir.
! cnsSiaus centuries ago. The Circassians were
poor, and as low in their moral perceptions as
their worldly goods 1t is very well known
that, time out Of mind, these miserable people
! have sold their maFFiageable daughters for the
harems at ConstantinOplc, Smyrna, Cairo and
other cities throughout Persia and Turkey.
The smallpox was q hindrance to this nefa-
rious traffic. Many of the poor girls perished
by the disease; and, Of those who recovered
from its direful attacks, large proportion be-
| friPhtf,Rlixy H. fO ha
of disgust, and therefore unsaleable. The Cir
cassians resorted, in all instances, to innocu.
lation Of their female infants at the age of six
or twelve months If it SO happened that in
any year. the disease bad DISAPPEARED, so that
no rt'uS could be procured, with which to
innOculate their infants, that was considered
an unlucky year.
The first European, so far as it is known,
ever innoculated for the smallpox, was an in
Eant of Lady WORTHY Montague, born at Con-
stantinople, in 1921, while she was residing in
that city, with her husband, the ambassador
to the principal city in the Turkish Empire.
Lady Montague, against the remonstrances Of
her household, having learned the practice Of
the CircasSians in this regard, had her child
innoculatcd for the small pox. Upon her re-
turn, some years afterwards, to England, shc
had an interview with the then queen of her
| UhlItc COuutTV1 tOlu UeT WIIu what SuCCeSS INC
child had encountered this dreaded disease, in
its modified form. and persuaded her majesty
to use her powerful influence to introduce the
practice among her subjects.
The queen entered readily into Lady Mon.
tagues views and proposed to four c0nCiets,
then under sentence of death, to procure their
full pardon, on condition of their submitting
to innoculatiOn for the smallpox. The expert
mcnt was tried with entire success upon these
cuprits, and thence adopted very soon through
out the kingdom Of Great Britain. The French
nation held out against this practice for many
years, suffering immensely from the continual
ravages Of the disease. Many Of their most
eminent men and women had died of It, inclu.
ding their king, Louis XIV. In Paris alone,
in one year, after this experiment of Lady
Montague, more than tcentg thOWsGnd died
Of smallpox. In every hundred Of the popu-
lation of France, sixty took the disease Out
of that sixty the average deaths amounted to
ten-and, of those who recovered. ten more
were frghtfully marked by the disease.
1t was not till 1898, seventy-seven years
after Lady Montague tried innocu' alton for
smallpox upon her infant, that DIR. Jenner 50
happily introduced the COW -pox into England
The history Of this discovery is too familiar to
our readers to require repetition. Itwas first
brought into the United States two years
after, viz: in the year 1900 The late Dr.
Waterhouse, who died a few years ago in
Cambridge, claimed to have been mainly I'M
strumental in presenting the subject to our
people, and aspired to the honorable distinc.
tion Of being called the "Jenner Of America"
with how much prOpriety we do not know.
That the COW is subject now to just precise
ly the same disease as in 1898, and that she
has it too. everybody knows; and that vac
cnation now is just as perfect preventive Of
smallpox as it was in Jenher's time, ell expe-
rience and the testimony of millions of wit
nesses prove beyond oil cavil and controversy.
Let. then, every individual who. from any
cause, has hitherto omitted such an imperious
duty to himself, his neighbOrs and fellow man,
go at once to some skillful and upright physi-
clan, and avail himself of this great safeguard
against one Of the most frightful of all human
Affections. Boston Courier.
nVD