The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1882-02-10
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 persist
ent, none is more easily communicable or
fatal than was smallpox century ago. But
whence or how the disease arose it Is not so
easy to say. Other plaques have vexed the
earth for a time and then passed away, leav-
ing no vestige Of their ravages, as did the
great plague at Athens during the Pelopon-
nesian war, or the plague in the England of
Charles ii. but smallpox, not content with
twelve centuries Of sway, still holds its own
despite the discoveries Of science. 1t is un-
questionsbly true that diseases of such con-
tagious natures generally arise among filthy
and Illconditioned people, confined in mar
row 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 comparatively rare
among the Romans and Greeks of the illus
trious periods, owing to the free public baths
and excellent sanitary and gymnastic habits
of the times.
1t was reserved for the middle or dark ages
to furnish the most dreadful example Of pes
thence. Smallpox arose in the very darkest
period of medieval times. 1t first invaded
England in the ninth century; it was com
mon in Arabia in the tenth the crusaders
carried 1t through all Southern Europe; 1t
reached Norway In the fourteenth century I;
in 1917 1t was carried to San Domingo by the
Spaniards along with slavery, the Inquisi-
tion, the rack, and host Of other blessings
three years later it crossed to Mexico and
slew three millions; it invaded Iceland in
1707 and Greenland in 1913, staying fourth
part of the residents In the former and
large proportion of those in the latter coun-
try, and despite 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 ignorance, destitutisn,
negligence, and csrelessness continue to COM
bat the physicians and the dictates of COM
mon sense.
Its history is thus unique; other centa-
gious diseases have proved as fatal under
similar circumstances for limited periods;
none have continued their blasting work for
ten centaries In all climates from Mexico to
Greenland. 1t Is not unreasonable, there
fore, that its approach shsuld be hailed with
terror as is the approach of almost no other
disease. Yellow fever and Asistic cholera
even, have caused no such potent and wide
spread destruction. The very air it taints
carries infection garments in contact With
patients carry their baneful power for years
If shut up in tight closets; 1t can be COM
municated by mail or by the wind, by rail-
road, by ocean voyage, by manifold means
which can not be guarded against. 1t is not
only dangerous but loathsome in Its pro-
gress it drives away ones friends, thrusts
him into unutterable tortures and leaves him
often wreck for life with ruined health and
disfgured countenance. When to all this is
added Its persistent temperance at almost
definite periods, it is not to be wondered at
that smallpox scares are so common.