Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1863-03-10
HISTORY OF SMALL POX.

This loathsomc disease which has been developed
throughout the country 10y Yankee faith, is of ill.,
terest enough to give short article place in
columns on its history, which we compile mainly
from the Penny Magazine"
In the history Of the world we find at various
times, the record of epidemic spreading diseases
under the name Of plaques. The word plague is
apt to convey very indefinite idea to one not of the
medical fraternity which is unatle to describe but
in reality it is nothing more or less than fever
The great plague of London in 1865 caused the
death of 600 persons in one week, and of the
nature Of epidemic spreading diseases, which may
take its origin in the remotest district of extern
sive country and yet if its progress be independent
of the peculiarly Of soil and climate it may
come to overrun the whole. In the same way, al
though spreading malady commences in one hem
iSphere of the globe, it may after time invade the
others Small pox, previous to vaccination, was
plague which exercised a still more destructive
power tLian any other, and whole districts were
depopulated by it. The physicians Of ancient
Greece and Rome, it does not appear, were at
oil acquainted with small pox. We have to look
for traces Of its carly progress farther cast In the
tradition of the people of China and HindOostan, it
Eyas enumerated rs one of the common diseases of
the countries and those countries must be conSid-
cred as the cradle uf small pOx which would most
naturally be the result Of dense population and the
filth engendered from poverty Its first appearance
in western Asia was about the middle of the sixth
century, and Europe rs not invaded I'LL later Pc
Tiod.
In the year 5G9, the city of Mecca in Arabia was
nesieced by an army of AbySsinnan Christians I'M
der tie command Of Abreha, with the expectation
of destroying Pagan temple within that city. In
this army the small pOX committed dreadful havoc,
and the measles appeared at the same time, so we
are told st reached Great Britain in the beginning
of the 9th century. In 1917, st Domingo, one of
the WestiTndia islands, infected by it and not
less than million Of Indians were destroyed by
it and the uurderouS arms of the Spanish invaders.
in 1920 it commenced in Cuba, and from thence it
was carried to Mexico in the latter country in a
short time it is computed three and half millions
of its inhabitants we're carried off by it including
the brother and successor Of the superior Montezu
ma Peculi3rties Of climate affect it not, for in
l7O7 Iceland YVES nearly decimated by 1t, 10000
persons having died with the disease within very
short period Of time; and, IN 1888, Greenland lost
nearly all its inhabitants by it.
When it enters q locality where it has not been
before its first effects are almost always more ex-
tensvely destructive than at any subsequent time
and no disease IL itself more loathsome than small
pox The patentInOre particularly in the continent
variety, presents most pitiable spectacle. He is
seen laborng under a fever with the worst typhoid
or putrid SYMPTOMS he is covered from head to heel
with pustuleS, which sometimes coalesce and uti-
nately change the ssnoie surface of the body into
one continued tbct renders the features unds
tiugushable and converts him into an object Of dis
gust to the senses. Without the aid of nnocuation
and vaccination it is calculated that at least
fourteenth of every generation of mankind would
perish beneath the dreadful faint of small pox but
that were innoculaton generally practiced the NOR
tality would not amount to one in seventy of those
on whom the operation had been performed, and
under che protective influence of vaccination one
death is not to be expected in many hundred Of per-
sons SO treated. Dr. 5enner, Of England, discover
ed vaccination from observing that milkmads whose
hands were made sore from contact with a scab on
the udier of cows that MIXED by them escaped
the disease though in almost daily contact with it.
He was thus led to experiment upon his son and
then upon himself with some Of the vaccine matter
taken from the udder Of healthy COW, and the re-
suit has given to the world this sure protection
against this loathsome disease. We hope our rea.