The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-03-16

| smallpox between the years AGA and III Il.
c., during one of which fourth part of
the Roman Senate persisted, and durinp
another, so great was the mortality that
| the Romans undertook no work of a politi
cal or warlike character for year, and
thousands, who could not be buried. were
thrown into the Tiber. In the year $50 A.
d., at the birth of Mahomet. an Abvssinian
army was compelled to raise the siege of
Mecca on account of the breaking out of
smallpox. The armies raised by the prophet
spread it all over the east, and the Sara
Gems carried it into Sicily and Spain. From
this time, all through the long reign of
oriental despots and Roman emperors, up
to the tenth century, it ravaged all Europe.
The Crusaders carried it everywhere
Rhazes, an Arabian physician of the
tenth century, was the first to write a srue
account of the disease and to point out the
true and cooling treatment. Flfrida,
daughter of Alfred the Great, and wife of
Balwin the bold, earl of Flanders, was the
first English victim recorded. Louis XIV.
Of France and Mary, wife of Wilton III
OF England, were royal victims to the ma
lady. The Spaniards carried it to Mexico,
and in very short time three and a half
millions of people persisted in that kingdom
alone, among them the brother and success
sor of the brave but unfortunate Montezu-
ma. Whole tribes of Indians have been
swept out of existence by it. and nearly a
million of human beings persisted annually
OF smallpox before the discovery of vacci-
nation. In % Lady Wortley Montague,
wife of the British ambassador at Constap-
tinople, introduced incubation into Eng
land, whence it slowly spread over the
world, and to some extent modified the
severity of the disease. But incubation is
simply planting the seeds of the disorder
in virgin soil, and hence legislatures soon
prohibited its practice.
Happily we have vaccination as RENE
dy for no intelligent physician ever pre-
tended to cure smallpox, but as prevea-
rive. DR.. Edward Jenner, the great dis
coverer, after many years of laborious in
vestigation and experiment, published in
1899 his celebrated enquiry into the
Causes and Effects of cowpox,'' and estab-
lished these truths, viz:
First. That the grease or scratches in the
heels of horses, the eruptions sometimes
found on the udders of cows, and smallpox
in the human being, are notifications ofon
and the same disease.
Second. That the matter from the pus-
tules of the COW, introduced into the hui
man circulation, will almost invariably
prevent smallpox and the passage of the
smallpox through the constitution of the
inferior animal deprives it of its virulence,
and renders it harmless to the human race.
Third. That cowpox Wins does no dete-
rlorate in transmission from one individual
to another.
Fourth. Smallpox is communicable from
man to man by contagious influence and
1T considerable distances, but from the in
ferior animal to man only by introduction
into the circulation.
Fifth. That to insure perfect protection
every child born into the world should be
'accinated before six months of age; again
1t or after puberty, and again upon the
occurrence of an edidemic of smallpox two,
" three insertions being made in as many
different localities.
Sixth. That vaccine matter will not
transmit from one person to another any
'ther constitutional or hereditary disease.
In no contingency whatever can tue old
'roverb-" An ounce of prevention is
worth more than pound of cure''-be so
lptly applied. What then, is our manifest
luty as christians and members of an en-
ightened and religious community? /
lnswer:
First. That we have procured by law,
lnder penalty, the vaccination of every
hid who cannot exhibit satisfactory
marks before going into any school; every
person before being admitted into any col
ege, charitable or other institutions; boaus
If direction or public office, or in the learn
ng of any trade or occupation, and before
Second. Reorganization of our sanitary
police system and of the board of health,
md their control placed entirely in the
lands of the best medical talent of the city
With ample means to carry out all needful
measures for the prevention of the small
,ox in our midst again.
Adopt these essentials, and that horIi-
-
De seen felt and feared amoug us no more.
How Scholars Are Made.