The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-06-18
The Decline Of Smallpox,


In these days. a century after Edward
Jenner,s memorable fnocuiasion OF James
Phipps on May "A. 1Tss. we can hardly APP
preciate what smallpox MAS. A few fseis.'
however, viii show its dreadful ra~agts-
Dfnsdale, who went to 81. PETERSBURG -
inoculate the Empress Catherin2. says
that 20oo.oO0 people died in single year
in the Russian empire from smallpox.
In f707. In Iceland. out OF population
OF 5000. 1890 died. In Mexico. In
the sixteenth century, s,5o0. 600 people died.
leaving In some places scarcely enough
alive TO bury the dead. At the end OF
the eighteenth century. Gilbert Blame es-
timated that AN adult person who had
not had smallpox vas scarcely met with
or heard OF In the United Kingdom"
When servants were advertised for. i was
common to specify that they must have
had smallpox In the natural way" In
less. In an advertisement for a coun ter
feiter. IL was noted as a means OF his
Identification that he was without peck
holes" At the Institution OF the INDECENT
Blind, two-thirds OF the applicants were
made blind by the smallpox"
1t attacked the high as well as the
humble. In the family Of William III.
Of England. his Queen. Mary. hts mother,
his uncle and two cousins. children OF
James l., all died Of the smallpox. and
the King himself barely escaped with MS
life. During the eighteenth century. one
Emperor and two Empresses Of Austria,
six archdukes and archduchesSes, an cleo
tor OF Saxony, an elector OF B0memia. a
Dauphin and a King Of France. a Klns
| OF Sweden. and Car Of Russia. were
all numbered among It's victims. SO fear
full were It's ravages, that Barnouilh es-
| timated that 6O.000OOO persons died from
smallpox in the century the close Of
which saw the foundation OF this very
faculty. Well might Macaulay say; The
| havoc Of the plague had been far nior2
rapid, but the plague visited our shores
only once or twice within living memory.
But the smallpox was always present
filing the churchyard with corpses, ieaV-
ing on those whose lives IL spared the
hideous traces of its power turning the
babe into a changeiing at which the moth
er shuddered. and making the eyes and
| cheeks of the betrothed maiden objects Ct
| horror TO her lover" II was the most
| terrible OF all the ministers OF death"
But in 1875 arose the medical David who
was to sfnite this Goliath. From that time
| Till the present smallpox has been shorn
OF all its terrors. Very recently, In Jen-
| ner's own country. attempts have beer
made TO show that vaccination was use
less; that Il drove out Of the system one
| vile disorder by inrOducing another. that
| II disseminated instead Of preventing dis
ease. Were we to grant all thaAs falsely
alleged as to the Introduction OF tubercu-
losls and syphilis. even then the benefits
Il has conferred would outnumber the
| evils ten-thousand-fold. But, as a mat
| ter of fact. the cases in which evil re-
suits have followed are few and far be-
| tween, and by the use Of animal virus In
stead Of hte humanized and by the proper
| antiseptic care In vaccination. which Is
really a minor surgical operation, all OF
these III effects can be avoided:
A few statistics will show the benefits
vaccination has conferred. In Sweden, be-
fore vaccination. the deaths per million
were 2045 Since compulsory vaccination
was introduced they have fallen 10 10.
In England during the eighteenth century
the average deaths per million were about
2 600 Since the epidemic OF lS7l-'12 and the
enforcement of the law for vaccination
the deaths have fallen 10 80 per millian
and in Scotland they have fallen TO \.
In Prussia, before compulsory vacCiua-
| ton. there were 800 deaths per million;
| in the last ten years only 1. In Austria
| without compulsory vaccination. in the
last ten years the average has been Us
deaths per million. and In Belgium with
out compulsory vaccination from 1910 "a
1854 there were al deaths per million. In
the Sheffield epidemic Of ISIS Of the un-
vaccinated population. l In 20 died: OF
those who were vaccinated, / IN LOO
Philadelphia Medical Journal.