The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-06-18
SMALLPOX.
An Ancient Pest Which Vaccination
Has Robbed of Its Terrors.
philadelphia Medical JournaI.)


In these days, century after Edward
Jenner's memorable incubation of James
Phipps on May II, 1896, We can hardly
appreciate what smallpox was. A few
facts, however, will show its dreadful
ravages. Dinsdale, who went to st. Pc
tersburg to inocuate the Empress Cath
arine, says that 100000 people died in
a single year in the Russian empire from
smallpox. In 1907, in Iceland. out of Il
population of $4,000, $4,000 died. In
Mexico, in the sixteenth century, 5000
600 people died, leaving in some places
scarcely enough alive to bury the dead.
At the end of the eighteenth century
Gilbert Blame estimated that IAN adult
person who had not had smallpox was
scarcely met with or heard of in the
United Kingdom" When servants were
advertised for, it was common to specify
that they must have had smallpox i'll
the natural way" In 1865, i'll an adver-
tisement for Il counterfeiter. it was noted
as means of his Identification that he
was without 'pock- holes" At the Insti-
tuition of the INDECENT Blind, two-thirds
Of the applicants were made blind by
the smallpox"
II dtldtktu tuc uISu WciA tuG
humble In the family of William Ill
of England, his Queen, Mary; his father,
his mother, his uncle. and two cousins,
children of James /. all died of the
smallpox. and the King himself barely
escaped with his life. During the eigh-
teenth century, one Emperor and two
Empresses of Austria, six archdukes and
archduchesses AN elector of SaXony,
an elector of Bohemia, a Dauphin and il
King of France, a King of Sweden. and
a Gar of Russia were all numbered
among its victims. So fearful We're its
ravages that Bernoulli estimated that
60,000,0O0 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 more rapid, but the
plague visited our shores only once or
twice within living memory. But the
smallpox was always present filling the
churchyard with cOrpseS. leaving on
those whose lives it spared the hideous
traces of its power turning the babe into
changing at which the mother shud-
dered and making the eyes and cheeks
of the betrothed maiden objects of hor-
ror to her lover" 1t was 'the most
terrible of all the ministers of death
But in 1906 arose the medical David
who was to smite this Goliath. From
that time till the present smallpox has
been shorn of all it's terrors. Very re-
Gently, in Jenner's own country, at
tempts have been made to show that vac
cination was useless; that it drove out
of the system one vile disorder by in
Producing another; that it disseminated
instead of preventing disease. Were we
to grant all that is falsely alleged as to
the introduction of tuberculosis and
syphilis, even then the benefits it has
conferred would outnumber the evils
Thousand fold. But, as Il matter of
fact, the cases in which evil results have
followed are few and far between, 'and
by the use of animal virus instead of
the humanized and by the proper anti
septic care in vaccination, which is real
ly minor surgical operation, all of
these ill effects can be avoided.
A few statistics will show the bene-
fits vaccination has conferred. In
Sweden, before vaccination, the
deaths per million We're 2,045.
Since compulsory vaccination was
introduced they have fallen to
155. In England during the eigh-
teenth century the average deaths per
million were about 1000. Since the cpl
demic of 1S71-'12 and the enforcement
of the law for vaccination the deaths
have fallen to 53 per million, and in
Scotland they have fallen to s. In Prus-
sia, before compulsory vaccination, there
were 800 deaths per million; i'll the
last ten years only Z. In Austria, with
out compulsory vaccination, in the last
ten years the average has been 4oS
deaths per million, and in Belgium, with
out compulsory vaccination from 1870
to 1854, there were All deaths per mil
lion. In the Sheffield epidemic of 1887
'SS Of the unvaccinated population / i'll
20 died; of those who were vaccinated
/ in 1900.