Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1877-06-29
The Historn Of smaIIPox.

The History Of Small Fox.
How small pox first arose among men it
is difficult to conjecture. 1t has been sup
posed that 1t may have been originally de-
rived from some disease in the camel. Its
history leads to the settled belief that, while
few persons are not readily susceptible of
it, 1t never occurs now except from conta-
gion. 1t does not appear to have been
known in Europe till the beginning of the
eighth century. No mention of any such
dstemper is TO be found in the Greek or
Roman authors Of antiquity. Now, what
ever. may have been the deficiencies of
these ancieHt physicians, they were excel
lent observers, and capital DISORDERS Of
disease and it seems scarcely possible that
a disorder so diffusive, and marked by
characters so definite and conspicuous,
should have escaped their notice, or if
known should have been obscurely por-
trayed in their writings. On the other
hand, Mr.. Moore, in his learned and in
teresting History of Small Pox, has shown
that ii prevailed in China and Hindostan
from very early period-even more than
a thousand years before The advent of our
Saviour. That it did not sooner make its
way westward into Persia, and thence into
Greece, may be attributed, partly to the
horror which the complaint everywhere
inspired aud The attempts which we're con-
sequently made to check its progress 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 po-
sition Of the regions through which the
infection was distributed, separated as they
were from the rest of the world by i'm
mense deserts and by the ocean. The dis
ease is said to have broken out in Arabia
at the siege of Mecca in the year in which
Mohammed was born, i. e., in the latter
half of the sixth century. 1t was widely
propagated by his wars, and by those OF
the Arabs aflerward; and it 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-kUown outrage
upon his daughter, "Count Julian called
the invaders" Whensoever and whereso-
ever it came, it spread with fearfnl rapidly
and havoc. What is worthy Of special re-
mark is this That, while almost all men
are prone 10 take the disorder, large por-
tions of the world have remained for CEN
turtles entirely free from it, until at length
it was imported, and that it then infallibly
diffused and established itself in those
parts. Ofthe more modern history of the
disease our knowledge is more precise and
sure. 1t tends uniformly 10 the same con-
cluson. There was no small pox in the
new world before its discovery by Colum-
bus in 1892. In 1917 the disease was i'm
ported into San Domingo. Three years
later, in one of the Spanish expeditions
from Cnba TO Mexico, negro 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 people were
destroyed in that kingdom alone. Small
pox was introduced into Iceland in 1907,
when 10000 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 1873, and spreading so ia
tally as almost TO depoPulate the country.
Evidence to the same effect is furnished
by the results of vaccination in some coun-
tries. To take one instance: Vaccination
was adopted in Denmark in 1901, and made
compulsory in 1910. From that time small
pox disappeared altogether for fifteen years,
whereas, during the twelve years preced-
ing the introduction of the preventive dis
order, upward Of 5000 persons died of the
small pox in Copenhagen alone.-Nine-
teeRh Century.