Mexico weekly ledger., 1877-07-19

On earth am I to find my place in it?'
Mr.. Laboucher says in his paper of
June IA: 81 was very much amused
last Sunday by hearing a young lady
say to an admirer. Hush! beware
of the torpedo and asking for an
explanation, she answered. ooh, it
is only a new name for mamma, be-
cause she blows up SO often.
HISTORY OF THE SMALLPOX.
How smallpox first arose among
men it is difficult to conjecture. 1t
has. been supposed that it mayhavebeen
originally derived from some disease
in the camel. Its history leads to the
settled belief that, while few persons
are not readily susceptible of it, it
never occurs 10 except from conta-
glon. 1t does not appear to have
been known in Europe till the begin
ming of the eight century. No men
ton of any such disease is to be
found in the Greek or Roman authors
of antiquity. Now, whatever may
have been the deficiencies Of those
ancient physicians, they were excel
lent observers and capital DISORDERS
of disease 4; and it seems to me scarce
ly possible that a disease so dilfusive,
and marked by characters so definite
and ~conspicous 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 Smallpox" has shown
that it prevailed in China and Hindo-
stan from a very early period-eVcn
more than a thousand years before
the advent of our Savior. That it
did not soone make its way westward
into Persia and thence into Greece,
may be attributed partly to tie hor-
ror which the complaint everywhere
inspired, and the attempts which were
consequently made to check its pro-
sress by prohibiting all communication
with the sick, partly to the limited in
tercourse which took place among
EASTERN nations, but principally to
!, the peculiar position of the regions
r through which the infection was dis
!, tributed, separated rs they were from
the rest of the world by immense
f deserts and by the ocean. The disease
is said to have broken out in Arabia,
in the year in which Mohanmed WAS
born. i in the latter part Of the sixth
century. 1t vas widely propagated
. by his wars, and those of Arabs after
II ward; and it is generally believed to
t have first found entrance into Europe
at the time of the overthrow of the
e Gothic monarchy in Spain by the
/ MoOrs, when, to avenge the well.
known outrage upon his daughter,
S Count Julian called the invaders
Ie Wheresoever and whatsoever it came
l. it spread with fearful rapidity ant
s. havoc. What is worthy of specia
ID remark is this, that while almost al
men are prone to take the disorder
re large portions of the world have re
manned for centuries entirely FIRE
ir from it, until at length it was import
III ed, and that it then infallibly diffuse,
II, and established itself in those parts
III OF the more modern history of tn
nc disease our knowledge Is more precis
and sure. 1t tends uniformly to tn
&c same conclusion. There was no small
u pox in the New World before its dis
OF covery by Columbus in 1892. /
er 1917 the disease was imported int
Santo Domingo. Three years later
lis in n of the Spanish expedition
AS from Cuba to Mexico, a negro cover
ld ed by the pustules of smallpox wa
1t, landed on the Mexican coast. Frol
him the disease spread with such desc
IS luton that within a very short tim,
according to Robertson, 3,500,0 C
or people were destroyed within tn,
nd Kingdom alone. SmalB .jox was il
troduced into Iceland in 1907, whe
81 16, 200 persons were carried off by j
Vi ravages-more than a fourth part
10 the whole population of the island.
III reached Greenland still later, appea.
ing there for the first time IN 173;
and spreading SO fatally as to almoi
depopulate the country. Evidence
f, the same effect is furnished by result
of vaccination in some countries. I
!, take one instance: Vaccination W.
adopted in Denmark in 1901, an
made compulsory. From that tin
smallpox disappeared altogether ft
fifteen years, whereas during IL
~ twelve years preceding the introdu
oe ton of the preventive disorder u
ward of three thousand persons die
of smallpox in Copenhagen.-Nin'
In teenth Century.
Remember who you are talkir
' to, SIR" said an indignant parent
a fractions boy; Il am your father.
ise "Well, who's to blame for that? :" sa
NO young impertinence "'taint me-"
tie "
We cannot understand how al
Dronerly-raised Young lady can toll