The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-07-06
The History of Small Pox.

HOW small pox first arose among
men 1t is difficult to conjecture. II has
been supposed that il may have been
originally derived from some disease In
the camel. Its history leads to the set
tied belief that, while few persons arc
not readily susceptible of Il, it never
occurs now except from contagion. 1t
does not appear to have been known In
Europe till the beginning of the eighth
century. No mention of any such dis
temper is to be found in the Greek or
Roman authors of antiquity. Now,
whatever may have been the deficien-
cies of these ancient physicians, they
were excellent observers, and capital
DISORDERS of disease; and il seems
scarcely possible that disorder SO diff
iusive, and marked by characters SO
definite 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 hie learned and interesting
"History of Small Pox," has shown
that it prevailed in China and Hindo-
stan from very early period--even
more than thousand years before the
advent of our Savior. That il did NOT
sooner make its way westward into
Persia, and thence into Greece, NAV be
attributed, partly to the horror which
the complaint everywhere inspired, and
the attempts which were consequently
made to check its progress by prohibit
ing all communication with the sick.
partly to the limited intercourse which
then took place among the Eastern ma
tions, but principally to the peculiar
position 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 ont
in Arabia at the siege of Mecca in the
year iu which Mohafnmed was horn. i;
e., in the latter half Of the sixth cer,tu-
ry. 1t was widely propagated by his
wars, ana by those of the Arabs after
ward and it Is generally believed to
nave nrst found entrance into Europe
at the time Of the overthrow of the
Gothic monarchy in Spain by the
loors, when, to avenge the well-known
outrage upon his daughter, "Count JUL
ian called the invaders" Whensoever
and wheresoever 1t 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 II, until at length it was i'm
ported, and that 1t then infallibly diffus-
ed and established itself in those parts.
Of the more modern history of the dis
ease 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 Spanish expe-
ditions from Cuba to Mexico, a negro,
covered with the pustules of small box,
was landed on the Mexican coast. From
him the disease spread with such deso-
lation that within very short time, ac-
| cording to Robertson, three millions
and a half of people were destroyed in
that kingdom alone Small pox was
introduced into Iceland in 1907, when
l6,OOO persons were carried OF by its
ravages-more than fourth part of the
whole population of the island. II
reached Greenland still later, appearing
there for the first time in 1888, and
spreading so fatally as almost to depop-
ulate the country. Evidence to the
same effect is furnished by the results of
vaccination in some countries. To take
one instance: Vaccination was adopted
in Denmark in 1901, and made compul-
sorry in 1910. From that time small
pox disappeared altogether for fifteen
years, whereas, during the twelve years
preceding the introduction of the pre-
ventive disorder, upward of three
thousand persons died of the small pox
in Copenhagen alone.-[ Nineteenth
Century.