Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1870-01-14
Snlall.POx.
RYAN IMMINENT PHYSICIAN.


II may safely be affirmed that there Is
no single disease in the long catalogue of
human pestilences that has created great.
er havoc and been more Justly dreaded
than small poN-pdTiold. Other conta-
gious diseases have slain their thousands,
but small pox has slain its tens of thou
sands. 1t has destroyed armies, raised
sieges, and scattered whole tribes and
communities of people. The barbarian
devoutly sacrifices to Its deiied represen-
tation when il appears, and the Christian
fees as from the presence of death.
The date of the first appearance Of
smallpox is doubtful. There Is q tradition
in the East that it was first derived from
the camel but there is no proof of the
truth of the statement The "sore boils"
of Job have been attributed TO smallpox,
but foolishly. There is no evidence even
that the Greek and Roman physicians
knew of this disease. Procopius, who
lived in the middle Of tie sixth century,
gives a graphic account of disease close
ly resembling smallpox, which began A,
D. 544, in Egypt, and spread to Constan-
tinopole. In A. ID. $50, the year of the
birth of Mohammed, an Abyssinian army
was compelled to raise the siege of Mecca
by pestilence very like smallpox, which
created terrible mortality. The first
medical writer who gave an authentic
description of the disease was Rhazes, an
Arabian physician, who wrote about $40.
From that period the pestilence has had
many historians, and we have no difficulty
in tracing its progress from time to time
and estimating the extent of its ravages
1t has spread most widely where there
have been the largest movements among
nations; as in the conquests of the Araos
and Saracens, during the crusades, in the
emigration of the Spaniards to America
| etc.
Wherever it appeared in those early pc
riods, it was regarded as an avenginL
angel Whole continents were decimated
and some nations were almost completed,
annihilated. 1t is estimated that Al, 600,
900 of the people of Europe died Of small
pox in the one hundred years preceding
the introduction Of vaccination. As lat
as 1870, 10000 persons died of small
pox in Paris. 1t did not respect rank o
condition. The profigate Louis Nv, o
France, died OF it, abandoned by courtier
and friends. The wife of the King of Bur
gundy was attacked by it, and accused he
physicians of poisoning her; she re
Quested their execution, which wa
carried into effect over her tomb. l
general the sick were abandoned by the
most devoted friends, and left to die or r,
cover alone.
The mode of propagation of small po
long remained doubtful. That 1t could
communicated by actual contact Ito toucf
of the sick with the well, or by contagiol
was early apparent, and it was soon den
onstrated that the sick infected the air {
the room in which they lay. 1t becam
in time we'll established, therefore, thi
the disease was both contagious and infet
tious. 1t was also discovered that the be
and clothing of the sick absorbed til
poison, and afterward gave it off when e,
posed to the air, and thus communicate
the disease. These clothes or other art
cles were called t00aiteS, from their powt
of retaining the poison The porous wal
of the room also received the virus, an
would give it to the next occupant.
subtitle, indeed, did the poison seem to b.
and so many sickened without know
contact with the sick, that 1t came to b
believed that the disease was communicate
by sight and by hearing, and even by th
imagination.
More recent Investigations have led
the adoption Of the theory that the huma
subject is born with certain materials
his blood or tissues, which the poisonE
smallpox, scarlet-fever, or measles a
upon as yeast acts upon the dough-nam
ly, as ferment. In this fermentation, Il
peculiar poison multiplies itself mfnit
iy, and shows itself in the efflorescence {
eruption. But it destroys wholly or
part the original material upon which
acted: when it entirely destroys this m
terial, the disease can never repeat itse
in the same person when the ferment
ton is partial, the disease may recu
This theory explains also the nature of Il
process of incubation and vaccination
+ the two great preventive measures
small-pox-H Hedrth and Homd