The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1872-08-15
Deferred Articles.
Communicated.
SMALLPOX.


Mr.. EDITOR.-In reading the TRI b
UNE of the lst inst, L was much
amused at the credulity OF your cor
respondent, Business"
1t would seem that B. has, recent
ly, not been SO prosperous in business
as he might have been, and forgetting
that it was the farmers busy time,
he cOnceives something must be
wrong; and doubtless, a jester found
little difficulty in inducing him to be-
lieve that country people Were guilt
bic enough to believe all sorts of ride
ulous stories; promulgated, of course,
by those terrible doers Of evil, the
doctors.
In his imagination he sees women
fleeing, "Quixotic" like, from an i'm
aginary evil, and the city officials
barring in nCisome disease which,
he asserts, positively has had no ex-
istance within our city limits. With
out giving detailed account of sew
eral epidemics of smallpox which
the writer witnessed anterior to his
s0jOurn in Ohio, i'm one of which the
disease, in mild form was contract
ed by the writer himself, he may be
permitted to refer to the fact that, to-
gether with the late DR.. Dresback, he
attended nearly all the eases of small
pOx on the Portland road, when in
the winter of '49 and 80 the families
of the Egberts, Goetches, Rules, Hoo
Yers, Slaymakers, Bodkins and many
Others, We're afflicted Herewith and
that again he gave counsel in six Of
the seven families which were pros
trated with the malady during March
and April, 1865, in the 2d Ward of
this city.
According to the rules Of common
sense 1 may by this time be adIudged
qualified to diagnose case of small
poX from that of any other cutaneOus
disorder, and DO not hesitate to as
sert that the German man recently
treated by DIR. Hovey, on Melmore
street, was a well marked case of
smallpox, the opposition of Il. to the
contrary Notwithstanding.
B. is either professional man and
saw the case referred to, or is not n
professional man, and did not, Likely,
see it. IL the former, he must have
either viewed the case through spirit
glasses or else must be most eulpably
Ignorant of the appearance of skin
disorders; or if the latter, then in
passing judgment upon the opinions
of men, who having in early life pos
sessed the qualifications requisite of
vOtAries of the medical profession,
have added thereto, the experience of
more than a quarter of a century,
spent in its active duties, displays a
nlodesty seldom equaled, even in this
modest Yankee nation.
Not only did the writer give counsel
and prescriptions gratuitously to the
smallpox eases of Tif1in, in 1865, but
to hundreds OF Tihin's sick poor, and
many willing witnesses are ready to
attest to the uncIasping of the purse,
that a lacking comfort might be had,
or gratifying delicacy reach a lip
unaecustOmed thereto; yet never in
a single instance. to my knowledge,
has his hand reached or his eyes peep
ed into the City's Exchequer.
The Medical Staff of the City's
Board of Health, is certainly able to
take care of itself, yet may be allow
ed to state that DIR. Hoyey assures me
that the fee charged for attendance
upon the case of smallpox on Mel
more street was in amount less than
one tenth of the damage sustained in
his practice during the period of such
attendance.
In B's. unworthy allusiOn tO vac
cinatiOn, he fails to give the profess
ion credit for its efforts in that direc-
ton during the past winter, but he
has not failed in exhibiting the color
of his own soul, and it being a truism
that men judge their fellows by the
light yielded from within, we may
reasonably conclude that if Business"
deals with his patrons as he evidently
fears medical men do with their pa
tients and with the city treasury, we
need not be surprised if "BUsiHcss' Is
dull.
Aug. Z, 1872. J. L. H.