Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1882-09-21
HISTORY OF SMALLPOX.
A Plague Zhss Hos Held Ssrov ~ xtss,su
Centsrtes.

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OF the plaques which have arisen fron
time to time, and infested cities or ooun-
tries, none Is more dreaded, none u
more persistent, none is moro easily
communicable or fatal than WAS small
pox century ago But whence or how
the disease arose 1t is not 50 easy to say.
Other plaques have ve1ed the earth for
a time and then passed away, leaving no
vestige of their ravages, as did the great
plague of Athens during the Pelopon-
nesian war. or the plague in the England
of Charles IL; but smallpox, not con-
tent with twelve centuries of sway, still
holds its own, despite the discoveries
of science. It is unquestionably true
that diseases of such contagious ma
lures generally arise among filthy and
ill-conditioned people cenfned 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 dis
eases we're comparatively rare among
the Romans and Greeks Of the llustri-
GUS periods, owing to the free public
baths and excellent sanitary and gym
nastic habits of the timea It was re-
served for the middle or dark ages to
furnish the most dreadful examples Of
pestilence. Smallpox arose in the very
darkest period of medieval times. It
first invaded England in the ninth cent.
ury; it was common in Arabia in the
tenth the crusades carried it through
all Southern Europe; it reached Nor
way In the fourteenth century; in 1877
it was carried TO St Domingo by the
Spaniards along with slavery, the inqui-
sition, the rack and host of other
blessings three years later it crossed to
Mexico and slew three millions it in
vaded Iceland IN 17O7 and Greenland in
1913, staying fourth part of the resi-
dents in the former and . large proper
ton Of those in the latter country, 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 meas
ure, as long as popular ignorance, desti-
tuition, negligence and carelessness con-
tinue to combat the physicians and the
dictates of common sense.
Its history is thus unique. Other con-
tagious diseases have proved as fatal IN
der similar circumstances for limited
periods, but none have continued their
blasting work for ten centuries in all
climates from Mexico to Greenland. It
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 ohol-
era, even, have caused no sunh potent
and widespread destruction. The very
air it 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 can
not be guarded against. It is not only
dangerous, but loathsome in its progress;
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 reappear-
ance at almost definite periods, it is not
to be wondered at that smallpox scares
are so common.