Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1881-03-03
Small-pox-How the Disease Is Trans.
mitted-Its Historical Ravages.

THE cause of smallpox is universally
to be specific contagion, the
nature of which medical research has
.hus far failed to discover. No disease
s, in all probability, so contagious. A
prominent physician who bad given
particular attention to IL, and had had-a
7ery wide and varied experience in it,
said, eighty years ago, that
ne had never known a single instance In
which persons liable to smallpox could
pass any time with patient I'm the
ahamber without taking the infection.
ere have been instances where the
sonous effiuvium has crossed Q river
DO feet wide and effected ten out OF
I've workmen on the other side. Tho
tagion acts through the air, by con.
with the skin or by incubation, and
he impaired by corpse, which has
been couched. just what products
he diseased body are contagious are
precisely known, but that tho con-
Is of the postules and dried scabs are
has been definitely ascertained., Med
opinion differs as to the period when
disorder begins and ceases to be
tagious, but It Is prudent TO believe
apable of self-propagation rs socn ~
febrile symptoms have declared
mselves. How soon the patient
SEES to be dangerous has not been de-
mined accurately; but the stability Of
contagious principle may be inferred
m the fact that clothing will retain 10
months and for years, il il said,
EN- confined. Smallpox appears,
all the contagious exanthemata, in
demic form at irregular, and, as far
can be learned, at capricious, inter
s. After an extraordinary exemption,
haps for years, district may DO
denly invaded by it, where II will
btinue to prevail for longer
shorter period, and then spon-
eously disappear, not to be revived
o protracted period. Epidcmics
fer much in intensity, and isolated
YES are generally milder than where
distemper RACES. Race has COED
Al to do with the severity Of this dis
|e, the dark races, notably the negro
b our aboriginals, being very suscepu-
to it, and showing very little power
resist it. Although vaccination Is
herally acknowledged to be q pre-
hive, some physicians have recently
Jared it to be but partially effective,
all-pox, while it continues to be very
hgerous, is far less 30 than It used 70
At one time the proportion Of
this to cases was one to four. Ii II
re apt to prove fatal in childhood
old age than in the intervening
iod. In fermer times the eruption
believed to be an effort Of nature.N
rid of noxious matter, and stimuiat'
and heating measures eretherefcrt
bpted to that end The history Of thu
thsome disease II rather obscure
ere is no evidence that the Greek Of
abian writer's of the sixth century
ew anything of it. The first accurate
count of it was given by Rhazes, ~
hbian physician, who lived in thu
Fly part of the tenth century. II eeeml
have reached England nearly 1O(
RS later, and, after the Crusades, i
walled in the temperate regions o
ica, but not in the far North unit
be time later. Early in the sixteenth
fury it was carried from Europe Il
New World, where 1t ragged furious
killing $500, 900 of people In Mexict
ne. In 1907 il was introduced int
land, and nearly one-fourth OF thu
Ire population fell victims to it, ant
nty-six years after it nearly depopu
IA Greenland. These examples cor
crate the ell-founded opinion tina
tagious diseases are always most vir
bit when they first occur 10 a countr.
region that they have not before viz
.-New York Tones. sn s. 8 ,a