Mexico weekly ledger., 1882-02-02
HISTORY OF SMALLPOX.
A Plague that Has Held Sway for Twelve
Centuries.

Of all the plaques which have arisen
from time to time, and infested cities
or countries, none is more dreaded,
none is more persistent, none is more
easily communicable or fatal than was
small-p a century ago. But whence
or how the disease arose, it is not so
easy to say. Other plaques have
vexed the earth for . time and then
passed away, leaving no vestige OF
their ravages, as did the great
plague at Athens during the Pelspo-
nesian war, or the plague in the Eng
land of Charles H., but smallpox,
not content with twelve centuries
sway, still holds its own, despite the
discoveries Of science. 1t is unques-
tionably true that disease of such
contagious natures generally arise
from filthy and ill-conditioned people,
confined in narrow quarters. This
was the case with the Athenian plague,
and it was again the case in the jew
ish quarters in European cities. Con-
tagious diseases were comparatively
rare among the Romans and Greeks
of the illustrious period, owing to the
free public baths and excellent sani-
tary and gymnastic habits OF the
times. 1t was reserved for the
middle or dark ages to furnish the
most dreadful examples of pestilence.
Smallpox arose in the very darkest
period of medieval times. 1t first
invaded England in the ninth CEN
tury; it was common In Arabia in the
tenth the crusades carried it through
all Southern Europe il reached Nor
way in the fourteenth century; IN
1917 it was carried to St. Domingo
by the Spaulards along with slavery,
the Inquisitiop, the rack, and a host
Of other blessings; three years later
it crossed to Mexico and slew three
millions; it invaded Iceland in 1907,
and Greenland in 1888, Staying a
fourth part of the residents in the
former, and large proportion of
those in the latter country, and de-
spite of all that medical skill has done,
and is doing to cast it from the earth,
it bids fair to retain its hold, in some
measure, as long as popular ignor-
ance, destitution, negligence and
carelessness continue to combat the
physicians and the dictates of COM
mon sense.
Its history is thus unique. Other
contagious diseases have proved as
fatal under similar circumstances for
limited periods; none have continued
their blasting work for ten centuries
in all climates from Mexico to Green
land. 1t is not unreasonable, there
fore, that its approach should be
hailed with terror, as is the approach
of almost no other disease. Yellow
fever and Aslatic cholera even, have
caused no such potent and wide.
sprea destruction. The very air i,
taints carries infection, garments in
contact with patients carry their bane.
full power for years if shut up IN tight
closets it can be communicated by
mail or by the wind, by railroad, by
ocean voyage, by manifest means
which cannot be guarded against
1t is not only dangerous, but loath
some in its progress; it drives away
ones friends, thrusts him into unut.
terable tortures and leaves him often
a wreck for life, with ruined healtl
and disfigured countenance. When tc
all this is added its persistent reap
: pearance at all almost definite periods
it is not to he wondered at that small
pox scares are so common.