Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-11-08
SMALLPOX.

Some Interesting Information IN Regard
to is Causes and Means of Suppression.
There is disposition upon the part
OF many 10 severely critlCiSe the proper
officers on account OF their neglect TO
put the city in clean and healthy con-
dtion so far as the streets and alleys
are concerned. This act Of negligence
OF course cannot be too strongly re-
proved, but at the same time there is
another instance OF still greater crimi-
nality, and that is the neglect Of parents
to have their children vacCinated. 1t
is true that dirt and filth will
breed and foster smallpox in a Commu-
nifty, but it is still more so that vaccina-
ton Will obstruct It's progress and finally
impede it altogether. The following
from the Chicago Medical R&rie,r will
prove at once interesting and instruc-
tive:
Smallpox has been prevalent in the
Fourteenth ward OF this city for the past
eighteen months, and for the past year
has proved a source Of serious anxiety.
This ward has population IF $1,000, OF
various nationalties, largely Germanic
or North European. Poland has about
-, 600 representatives in Chicago, a
large number Of whom live in the Four
teenth ward, who, as rule, are violent
ly opposed to vaccination, and, in this
opposition have been strongly seconded
by many OF the physicians OF that
locality. During last summer
the tide OF immigration to the
northwest was passed through Chicago.
IS. I,, 20
permanent residents of the Fourteenth
ward. 1t is probable that 30 per cent.
OF the immigrants who reach Chicago
are liable to smallpox infection. The
Fourteenth ward is simply great
slough and the houses are from three 10
eight feet below the level of the streets.
Saturated with moisture, undraincd,
covered with the filth OF the neighbor-
hood, this part OF the city is in de-
plorable sanitary condition. 1t is al
most unnecessary to say that Cleanli-
ness OF person and surroundings has no
influence on smallpox infection. The
doctrine that cleanliness is more impor-
tant than vaccination has been expound-
ed by some OF the medical
lights of that neighborhood. They,
however, appear to have never
been acquainted with modern epidemi-
oogy. The experience OF Anderson
vile prison, where something like sixty
thousand prisoners were confined in
filth appalling, in character and extent,
demonstrates this position. Smallpox
was twice introduced into that pen, but
extensive and thorough vaccination at
the date OF enlistment prevented
spread OF the disease. Not more than
dozen deaths occurred. The fifteen or
twenty thousand Confederate prisoners,
massed together at the mouth OF the
Chesapeake, were better fed and their
quarters better poliCcd than at Ander-
sonvile, vet the condition were such as
to invite the sptead OF various
diseases il unsanitary conditions
could stimulate it, but, when small
pox was introduced only five cases Oc-
Cured. In modern European armies
the same facts have been observed. The
citizens OF the Fourteenth ward shonId
not attempt to remove the Responsible
ty OF the epidemic Of smallpo in their
midst from their own shoulders 10 the
municipal authorities. In successful
vaccination, and in the vaccination
alone, their safety lies. There is no in
tention TO intimate that Unsanitary con
dltions do not exert any influence on
the mortality OF smallpox. A special
influence exists in variola which filth
may aid, but can not create. This is
such potent trusm that it is very little
to the credit OF certain members Of the
medical profession OF the Fourteenth
ward that, from a suspClcious kind OF
amnesia, they have enunciated obvious
" false opinions to the contrary.
In Pittsburgh there is an ordinance
compelling the vaccination OF children
and why not enforce the same sanitary
arrangement here;