The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1877-06-13
SMALLPOX.
Something About the History Of the
Seourge.

Scourge.
How smallpox first arose among men it is
difficult to conjecture. 1t has been supposed
that it may nave been originally derived
from some disease in the camel. Its
history leads to the settled belief that, while
few persons are not readily susceptible to it,
it never occurs now except from contagion.
1t does not appear to have been known in
Europe till the beginning of the eighth GEN.
fury. No mention of any such distemper is
to be found in the Greek or Roman authors
of antiquity. Now, whatever may have
been the Deficiencies of these ancient ply
sicians, they were excellent observers, and
capital DISORDERS of disease; and it seems to
me scarcely possible that disorder so diff
tusive, and marked by characters so defni-
tive and conspicuous should have escaped
their notice, or If known should have
been obscurely portrayed in their writings
On the other hand, Mr.. Moore, in his
learned and interesting History of Small
pox, has shown that it prevailed in China
and Hindostan from a very early period
even more than 1000 years before the adj
vent of our Saviour. That it did not sooner
take its way westward into Persia. and
thence into Greece, may be attributed part
ly TO horror which the complaint every
where inspired, and the attempts which
were consequently made TO check its pro-
gress by prohibiting all communication with
the sick, partly to the limited intercourse
which then took place among the eastern
nations, but principally to the peculiar
positions of the regions through which the
infection was distributed, separated as they
were from the rest of the world by immense
deserts and by the ocean. The disease is
said to have broken out in Arabia at
the siege of Mecca in the year in which
Mohammed was born, /. e., in the latter
part of the sixth century. 1t was
widely propagated by his wars, and by those
of the Arabs afterward; and il is generally
believed to have first found entrance into
Europe at the time of the overthrow of the
Gothic Monarchy in Spain by the Moors,
when, to avenge the well known outrage
upon his daughter, Count Julian called the
invaders" Whensoever and whosoever il
came, it spread with fearful rapidity and
havoc. What is worthy of special remark is
this: That while almost all men are prone
to take the disorder, large portions of the
world have remained for centuries entirely
free from it. until at length it was imported,
and that it then infallibly diffused and es-
tablished itself in those parts. OF the more
modern history of the disease our knowledge
is more precise and sure. 1t tends uniformly
to the same conclusion. There was no small
pox in the new world before its discovery
by Columbus in 1892. In 1917 the
disease was imported into San Domingo.
Three years later, in one of the Span
gro covered with the pustules of small. pox
was landed on the Mexican coast. From
him the disease spread with such desolation
that within a very short time, according to
Robertson, three millions and half of PEG.
| pie were destroyed in that kingdom alone
| Smallpox was introduced in Iceland in 1707
when 10000 persons were carried off by il:
ravages-more than a fourth part of the
whole population of the. island. 1t reached
Greenland still later, appearing there for the
| first time in 1888, and spreading so fatally a:
to almost depopulate the country. Evidence
| to the same effect is furnished by the results
of vaccination in some countries. To take
one instance: Vaccination was adopted il
1901, and made compulsory in 1910. From
that time smallpox disappeared altogether
for fifteen years. whereas during the twelve
years preceding the introduction of the pre-
ventive disorder, upward of 5000 person:
died of the smallpox in Copenhagen alone.
Nineteenth Century.