Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1863-03-11
HISTORY OF SMALL. POX.

This loathsome disease, which has been developed
throughout the country by Yankee faith, is of in.
terest enough to give short article place in our
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 or spreading diseases
under the name of plaques The word plague is
apt to convey very indefinite idea to not Of the
medical fraternity which is unstle to describe, but
in reality it is nothing more or less than fever
The great plague of London in 1865 caused the
death Of {, 900 persons in one week, and wasof 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 popularity Of soil and climate it may soon
come to overrun the whole In the same way al
though q spreading malady commences in one hem
sphere Of the globe, it may after time invade the
others. Small pox, previous to vaccination, was
plague which exercised q still more destructive
power than any other, and whole districts were
depopulated by it The physicians of ancient
Greece and Rome, it does not appear, were at
all acquainted with small pox. We have to look
for traces Of its early progress farther east In the
tradition of the people of China and Hindoostan, it
was enumerated as one of the common diseases of
the countries and those countries must be consid-
cred as the cradle of small pox which would most
naturally be the result Of dense population and the
fifth engendered from poverty. Its first appearance
in western Asia was about the middle of the sixth
century, and Europe was not invaded till later Pc
Rod.
In the year $50, the city of Mecca in Arabia was
oesieged by on army of Abyssinnian Christians un-
der the 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 1t reached Great Britain in the beginning
Of the 9th century In 1917, St Domingo, one Of
the West India islands, was infected by it and not
less than one million of Indians were destroyed by
it and the murderous arms Of the Spanish invaders.
In 1920 it commenced in Cubs, and from thence it
was carried TO Mexico in the latter country in =
short time it is computed three and half millions
Of its inhabitants were carried off by it including
the brother and Of the superior Montezu-
mo. Peculiarities Of climate affect it not for in
persons having died with the disease within very
short penod Of time; and, in 1888, Greenland lost
nearly all its inhabitants by it.
When it enters locality where it has not been
before its first effects almost always more ex-
tsnsively destructive than at any subsequent time
and no disease is in itself more loathsome than small
pox The patient more particularly in the continent
variety, presents ueost ptia6fe spectacle. he Is
seen laborihg under fever with the worst typhoid
or putrid symptoms he is covered from bead to heel
with pustules, which sometimes coalesce and ulti.
mately change the whole surface of the body int
one continued sore that renders the features undis
tippushable, and converts him into an object of dis
gust to the senses Without the aid Of nnoculatior
and vaccination it is calculated that at1east one
fourteenth Of every generation Of mankind wou!t
perish beneath the dreadful faint of small pox bu
that were innoculation generally practiced the NOR
tality would not amount to one in seventy of those
on whom the operation had been performed, ant
under the protective influence of vaccination on
death is not to be expectsdin many hundred of per
SONS 50 treated DR.: Jsnner, of England, discover
ed vaccination from observing that milkmaiis who's
hands wera made sore from contact with a scab o,
the ud1er Of cows that were MIXED by them escapes
the disease though in almost daily contact with II
He Yves thus led to experiment upon his son AM
then upon himself with some of the vaccine matte
taken from the ndder of q healthy COW, aud the re
suit has given to the world this SURE protection
against this loathsome disease We hope our res