The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-01-30

and lands. 1t proved conclusively that |
Providence was not guilty of that for |
which He was charged in visitations
of death and disaster by this enemy of
mankind. 1t placed within human hands |
methods and means for the oblitera-
tion of smallpox 1t has made the
history of the disease, which for more
than two thousand years, nothing could
be done whatever; a disease entirely
within control and modification. 1t has
removed a scourge from the face Of
the earth, and by so doing 1 am not
too prophetical in predicting that the
other scourges which menace the race
await similar solutions at our hands.
The history of smallpox prior to
Jenners discovery makes a sad and
gloomy picture. The completeness or
incompleteness of it's history up to
his time is the most terrible record of
disease of which we have any know
ledge. 1t has been estimated by his
torians that during the century
preceding vaccination, that 50,000,000 of
people in Europe alone died of small
poX. Contrast this record with the
record of an hundred years after it's
use. This number of deaths in one CEN
tury about equalled our entire poula-
ton in the United States in an almost
equal period of time from the Declara-
ton of Independence.
Under such existing conditions, it has
been said that "the human race was
beaten down until men became resign
ed to the disease" There is no conta-
gion so strong and sure as smallpox;
and, in the language of Watson, "none
that operates at so great distance"
The value of vaccination as a means
for the limitation of smallpox, soon
after it's discovery, was recognized by
the governments of Europe, and its in
PRODUCTION among the people by the
crowned heads was rapidly made.
Spain at that time held possessions
in different parts of the old and new
world; and sent expeditions with
surgeons and vaccine virus on a long
cruise, encircling the globe, covering a
period of three years.
The possibilities which vaccination
offered so greatly influenced the world,
that at a very early date compulsory
vaccination was established in Bavaria,
in 1907; Denmark, in 1910; Sweden, in
1914; Wurtenburg, Hesse, and other
German states in 1918: Prussia in 1886;
Roumania, in 1874; Hungary, in 1876,
and Servia in 1881.
A brief history of smallpox and the
awful ravages and mortality records
which it has left in it's prevalence in
| the early history of the human family,
| cannot fail to impress the student of
history in the widely contrasted con-
ditions which existed then and those
which now exist.
Smallpox, no doubt, is as old as the
advent of man.
| Beginning in the Orient, records
established it's prevalence as 1922 B. c.
India and China and other Asiatic
countries long before the birth Of Christ
suffered from this disease and have
left substantial records of it's fatality.
The Greeks and Romans experienced
it's fatal blow. and it is now believed
that Athens, B. c. 430-25, trembled un-
der the destroying power of this disease
generally termed the plague. The exo-
dus Of peoples from one country to
another spread the disease until Europe
and America received the disease, as
mans migrations carried 1t in the
progress of adventure, discovery and
| civilization.
Smallpox is as deadly a foe today
to the human family as it was wher
|
his famous work in the early part of the
tenth century.
1t appeared in Rome in A. D. 100
China, A. d. 200; Pelusium, A. d. 544
1t spread over Egypt and Syria and the
rest Of Asia Minor.
Gregory, of Tours, records the ap.
pearance Of an epidemic in the coun.
tries of southern Europe, bordering on
| ntnE,i ,iK,er l.,
crusades Europe suffered greatly by
reason of the importation of smallpox
brought from foreign lands. This
disease assumed grave dimensions
through travel, as commercial anC
social intercourse increased among the
people. The terrible border wars fought
hand to hand in those early days. alsC
perpetuated the disease and annually
swept away hundreds of thousands o.
people in epidemics. Wars then as now
destroyed an alarming large number by
disease.
Smallpox entered England in 1241-42
Iceland, in 1906, and Sweden and Ger,
many toward the end of the 18th cen,
tury. 1t was not long finding ar
introduction into the western hemis
phere, as voyages of discovery, head
ell by intrepid navigators, dared the
dangers of unknown seas. 1t reached
the West Indies in 1907 annihilatinf
entire tribes of savages. Mexico did no
escape. In 1927 it swept away million!
of victims there. and in the languarg,
of Prescott, in his history of Mexico
Smallpox swept over the land like fire
over prairies, shifting down prince anC
peasant, and adding another to tn,
long trail of woes that followed thu
march of the white man. 1t swep
down toward the Pacific, leaving it!
paths strewn with the dead bodies O.
the natives, who, in the strong languag,
of contemporary, perished in heaps
like cattle stricken with murrimain."
So dreadful was smallpox in ENGLAND
that the history of the British king
dom is not complete without some refer
ence to it's effect upon the people
Macaulay says: '"rhat disease owe
which science has since achieved
succession of glorious and benefcen
| Vlct0riaa was than tha most fa,.,.tl,Io -