Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-02-23
HISTORY or SMALLPOX.
a Plague that Has Held Sway 70
Twelve Centuries.

Twelve Centuries.
VI all the plaques which have arisen
from time to time, or infested cities
or countries, none is moro dreadful.
none is more persistent, none is more
easily communicable or fatal than was
smallpox century ago. But whence
or how the disease arose it is not 80
easy to say. Other plaques have yexed
the earth for a time and then pass
away, leaving no vestige of their
ravages as did the great plague at
Athens during the Peloponnesian war.
or the plague in the England Of Charles
H., but smallpox, not content with
twelve centuries of sway, still holds its
own despite the discoveries of science
1t Is unquestionably true that diseases
OF such contagious nature generally
arise among filthy and i'll conditioned
people, confined in narrow quarters
This was the case with the Athenian
plague, and it was again the case in
the Jewish quarters Of European cities,
Contagious diseases were comparative.
ly rare among the Romans and Greeks
OF the lllustrious periods, owing to the
free public baths and excellent sanitary
and gymnastic habits of the times.
IL was reserved for the middle on
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 century; it was common in
Arabia In the tenth; the crusades car
ried it through all Southern Europe
1t reached Norway in the Fourteenth
century; in 1917 it was carried to st.
Domingo by the Spaniards along
with slavery. the Inquisition, the
rack, and host of other blessings
three years later it crossed to NJ, xico
and slew 100000; it invaded Iceland
in 10Y, and Greenland in 1873, Staying
fourth part of the residents in the
former and large proportion of those
In the latter country, and despite al
that medical skill has done, and is do.
ing to cast it from the earth. it bids
fair to retain its hold, in soma measure
as long as popular ignorance, destitu
ton, negligence and carelessness con
tinue to combat the physicians and tht
dictates Of common sense.
Its history is thus unique; other con
tagious diseases have proved as fata
under similar circumstances for limit
ed periods, none have continued thei
blasting work for ten centuries in al
climates from Mexico to Greenland
1t is not unreasonable, therefore, tina
its approach should be hailed with ter
ror as Is the approach of almost D.
other disease. Yellow fever an,
Asiatic cholera, even, have caused n
such potent and widespread aestruC
ton. The very air it taints carries in
lection; garments in contact with pa
tients carry their baneful power fo
years If shut up in tight closets; it ca
be communicated by mail or by tn
J wind, by railroad, by ocean voyage, b
manifest means which cannot be guarC
, ed against 1t is not only dangerou
, but loathsome in its progress;
I; drives away ones friends, thrusts biz
: into unutterable tOrtures and leave
/ him often a wreck for life, with RUNE
! health and dis6gured countenanc
/ When to all this is added its persister
| temperance at almost definite period
, 1t is not to be wondered at that small
J pox scares are so common.