Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-02-18
HISTORY OF SMALLPOX
4 Plague That Has Held Sway for
Twelve Centuries.

or all the plaques which have
arisen from time IL time, or infested
cities or countries, none Is more
dreaded, none is more persistent,
none is more easily communicable
or fatal than was smallpox a CEN
fury ago. But whence or how the
disease arose il is not 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 PelOIUneeian war, or
the Plague in the Reign Of Charles
H.; but smallpox, not content
with twelve centuries of sway, still
holds its own, despite the discOv-
cries of science. 1t is unquestiOna-
bly, true that diseases of such con-
tagious nature generally arise
among filthy and Unconditional
people, confined In narrow quarters.
This was the ctSe with the Atheni-
an plague, and it Was again the
case in the Jewish quarters of Euro
pean cities. Contagious diseases
were comparatively rare among
the Romans and Greeks of the il
lustrious periods, owing To the free
public baths and excellant sanitary
and gymnastic habits Of the times.
1t was reserved for the middle or
dark ages TO furnish the most dread
full examples of peStileuce. Small
poX arose in the very darkest peri
cd of medieval times. 1t first in
vaded England in the ninth
century it was common IN Arabia
in the tenth the cru9adrS carried it
through all Southern Europe; it
reached Norway i'll the fourteenth
century; in 1917 it was carried to
st. Domingo by the Spaniards
along with slavery, the Inquisition,
the rack, and host OF blessings
three years later it crossed to Next
co and slew three millions; it inva
ded 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 despite all that medi-
cal 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, destitu-
ton, negligence and carnlessness
continue to- combat the physicians
and the dicta les OF common sense.
Its history is thus unique; other
contagious diseases have proved as
fatal under similar circumstances
for limited periods; none have CON-
tinued their blasting work for ten
centuries from Mexico to Greenland.
1t is not unreasonable, therefore,
that its approach should be hailed
with terror as is the approach of
almost no other disease. Yellow
fever and Asiatic cholera, even have
caused no such potent and wide
spread destruction. The very air
1t taints carries infection. garments
in contact with patients carry their
baleful power for years if shut up in
tight closets it can be communica-
ted by mail or by the wind, by rail
road. by ocean voyage, by manifest
means which cannot be guarded
against. 1t is not only dangerous
but iOathSume in its progress it
drives away ones friends, thrusts
him into unutterable tortue8 and
leaves him often a wreck for life,
with ruined health and disfguered
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.