The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1875-12-02
[prepared for thc Registef.l

Prepared for the Registef.l
Observation-Disclosures
Re.vaccination-Our Duty.
M. Editor;
It is our duty to announce the
death Of Miss Lacy, in the thirteenth
year of her age, who died in this city
of smallpox, Sunday, 18th ult. 1t
is proper also that We should state
that a younger sister of the deceased
is suffering from the same disease.
1t is not our purpose to criticise
our municipal or health officers, but
it does occur to us that there is not
that strict and close observance of
quarantine regulations, necessary to
protect ear people against thcspread
and tsses of that terrible and most
loathsome disease, smallpox, which
everywhere that it has broken out
this season, has shown a stronger
disposition to prevail andswecP.orer
cities and countries as an epidemic,
than it has done for years. Why
this, we will not now undertake to
solve, but that it is stubborn and
unmistakable fact, is seen from the
reports wherever it has prevailed for
the last several months. And this
fact has been noticed and marked
even where the most cautious and
strictest quarantine regulations have
been adopted and closely Observed
Hence it behooycs our city authori-
ties, health officers, and citizens gen.
orally, to be on the alert and leave
nothing undone which tends to arrest
and suppress this horrible disease.
a general idea seems to prevail
among many of our very intelligent
citizens, that there need be no alarm
about small-pox-that there are only
particular ways, and at particular
timeswhen smallpox can be COM
municated, &c, &c.
We have heard it declared that
"there is no danger of taking the dis
ease urless you come in contact with
the affected patient during the peri
cd Of suppuration, or after scab has
formed, dropped of, &C."
From the experience VIC have had
in the treatment Of the disease in
former years, and from all the infor-
nation that we can gather on this
subject, from the ablest and best ply
sicians in our country, as well as from
the perusal Of the latest works of the
most gifted and distinguished medi-
cal authors, it IS a fixed and well set
tied point that whilst smallpox may
be more readily communicated dur
ing the earliest period ofsuppuration,
yet there is no period, perhaps, even
from the time that an individual is
exposed to smallpox, before even he
has any symptom of the disease him
self, that he may no: convey the dis
ease to another. In giving publicity
to this opinion, we are sustained by
that distinguished medical teacher,
George B. Wood, NJ. D. Emetit,s Pro
fcssor in the University Of Pennsyl-
vania, and also DR.. Felix Won Me
meyer, Professor IN the University OF
Tubingen, and still later. by the able
and exhaustive article on smallpox,
from the pcnof Dr.. Cursehmann, Of
Berlin, published a few months ago
by DR.. H. Won ziemsscn, Professor Of
Medicine in Munich, Bavaria, in his
Cyclopedia of the practice Of medi-
cine This work We. believe stands
highest in theestimation Of the Med
ical Fraternity. This being a well
known fact, VIC may be pasdoned for
making y quotation from the same,
fvol.2 p. 335.
ut is difficult to determine with
accuracy the stage ia'cl,ich Patissts arc
most litsl., % spread affection (by diiia-
sing the poison throughout the neigh
boring atmosplere); the earliest Pc
Rod Of supparation is usually 50 CON
sidercd. Many ascribc an especial
danger to the stage Of dessication;
but on insufficient grounds, however.
When there has been frequent com
munication with patients, the time
of injection cannot be accurately de
termined, principally on account Of
the variable duration of the incuba-
tory stage
.:In the initial stage, moreover, at
E. time mhnn ns rnt no trace Of SMALL