Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-07-05
History ofrhe Small ox.
From the Nlnsteentir Century.

How small pox frst arose among
men il is difficult 70 ooriecinre. 1t
has been supposed that it may have
been originally deTiYed from some
desease in he camel. LIS History
leads to tho settled belief that, while
few persons are not readily a-eepn-
BILE otit, il never occnrs no@ except
from oontaglon. 1t does not appear
TO have been known in Europe till
the beginning Of the eighth century.
No mention Of any such desease is
to be found in the Greek or r man
authors Of antiquity. Now. whass
ever may have he1n the 4 'Gsiencies
II those ancjens ply sieiaas, they
were excellent observers and capita
deseribers Of desease; land it seems
10 N scarcely possible that disor-
der so dIifasive, and marked by
characters 50 defiinite and eonspie-
ucus, should have escaped heir no
tjro, or ii kn8wn should have been
ohseurely betrayed in their writings
On Tho Other hand, Mr. Moore, in
bis Learned AMI interesting "Hstory
of Small IEox has shown that il
prevailed in China and Hindostan
from a very early period. even
moro than 1000 years before the adj
vent Of our Savior. That it did not
sooner make its way westward iuto
Persia, and thence int0 Greece, may
DO attributed partly 0 the horror
which tie complaint overy where in
spired, and the attempts which were
constantly made TO check its pro-
gress by prohibiting all communica-
ton with tho sick, parcly 10 the lin
tied Intercourse which then took
place among the Eastern nations,
but principally to the peculiar posi-
ton Of the regions through which
the infection was distributed, separ-
ated as they were from the rest OF
the world by imm ense deserts and
by the ocean. The disease is said
to have broken out 10 Arabia at the
siege Of Mecca in the year in which
MOhammed was 0orn-that ia in the
latter half If The sixth century 1t
was widely propagated by his vars,
and by those ofthe Arabs afterwards;
and IL il generally believed to have
first found entrance into Europe at the
time Of the overthrow of the Gothic
monarchy in Spain by the Mo0rs,
when, to averge the wcll-known out
rage upon his daughter, Count Ju-
Liam called tho Invaders" WHAT'S
wogthy ofspeoial remark is this.
THAT while all mon arc prone to take
the disorder, large portions 81 the
wcIld have remained for centuries
cut rely free II m it, until 1t length
]. was lmpor. 4, and il tnen lntalll-
llY dilf'lsed and established Itself in
,boso parts. tends uniformly TO-
tha sans conclusion In 1917 be
desoaso waa impor "a INTO Santo Do
mingo. Three years later, in one If
the Spanish expeditions from Cuba
to Mexico u negro, covered with pcs
tnlcs Of sm n~pox, was aaded on
the MEXICAN coast. From him the
descase spread w.sh such desolation
that wi hin cry short I'm, ac-
eordipe II Il 3oevls,o, 3 500 600 per-
sons me.5 destroyed wi.lin tbat
kingdom alone Smallpox was To-
trodoced into Iceland in 1907, when
$1,000 persons wfra carried off by
its ravogas-m re than f.nrsn part
Of tho who's population OF The t.
land | reached Greer Ianj still
later, appearing thore for tho frs
time II 1732 aid spread ding 50 IA
tally il almost t5 dapopalato the
country E7jdonca II the same ct
feet il furnished by th9 results Of
vaccination in s,mo counties. To
take one instance: Vaccination was
adopted in Denmark in 1901, and
made compulsory IN 1910 From
thai inc smal!-p disappeared al
together for iifyoen years whereas,
during The evolve years preceding
the Introduction # ho preventive
disorder, upwards Of 1900 persons
died q lie mail pox in Copenbsgen
alone