The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-02-27

Spread Throughout the world.
Modern Methods of Treatment
Mitigate Its RavaEes-vaccinati
and Quarantine Laws DO Much to
Prevent Pest.
From the Chicago Chronicle.
Among the Ills which flesh was origi-
nally heir to was ont that of smallpox.
which is a comparatively modern disease.
1t originated little past the middle OF
the first thousand years of the Christian
era, or, to be exact, in a. d. $50. The
medical books describe the disease as a
contagious fever characterized by pus-
tular eruption having a depressed center.
1t was given the name it now bears in s6l
-variola pacce; before that date 1t seems
to have had no name.
In the Latin variola is varus, meaning
blotch or pimple. The term as English
speaking peop4e know it is of the same
significance and of Saxon origin. Pox
signifies a pounch or bag and the word
stood alone down to the middle of the
fifteenth century, when the prefix small
was added
Arabia is charged with the sin of hav-
Rhazes, an Arabian physician, who COM
posed a history of it. He wrote some
time in the tenth century. The raising
of a siege of Mecca by the Abyssinian
army about 500 is by this author attri-
buted to the ravages made by smallpox.
The part that Mohammed and his follow
ers played in history contributed to the
rapid propagation of the di ease. Measles
and scarlet fever were at first confounded
with smallpox or cons .dered as varieties
of it. This error indeed, prevailed for
great many years, when a physician
named Sydenham showed the essential
differences between them. Boerhaave, a
Dutch physician who died at Leyden In
1888, was the first to insist that con-
tagion is essential to the propagation of
the disease.
Period of Incubation.
The time that elapses from the moment
the patient receives the contagion until 1t
begins to manifest its effect In the initia-
tory fever is called the incubation period,
and is usually fourteen days. During this
time there is hardly ever any disturb
ance of the ordinary health. The COM
ms.ncement of the disease is marked by
chills followed by fever and ordinarily
by pain in the back, especially in the
loins, accompanied with nausea and vom-
fever runs high, with violent pain in the
back and much del rum. 1t often begins
in children by an attack of commissions.
Eruptions begin to show on the third
day of the fever. AS a rule they first APP
pear on the face, then on the neck ana
wrists, then on the trunk, and finally on
the feet and legs The eruptions are COM
plete on the fifth day, and after this few
or no new spots appear. They at first
consist of minute rounded pimples of
characteristic solid consistency, feeling
like small shot beneath the skin. 1t is
by this peculiar solidity of the spots that
smallpox at this stage is distinguished
from other popular eruptions.
Bv the fourth day from their first ep-
pearance the pimples are converted into
vescIes filed with a thin lymph and hav-
ing depressed center. The vesicles now
begin to be surrounded by a circular flush
upon the skin, which soon becomes dark
crimson, the lymph, at first colorless and
transparent, is gradually converted into
puss, which increases in quantity and
distends the vescles. About the eighth
day of the eruption a dark spot makes
it's appearance at the center of the pus-
tule and gradually dries up and is con-
verted into a scab. 1t is the falling of
the scab which causes a purplish-red
mark which slowly fades, but is indelible.
The order of the disease in passing away
is the same as at the beginning, the
scabs first falling from the face, then
from the neck and trunk, and then from
the legs and feet.
Three Forms of the Disease.
There are two forms of the disease
that are common and one that is uncom-
mon. The first two are discrete and con-
fluent smallpox and the latter hemorr-
aghic. In hemorrag CHIC smallpox there is
bleeding at the mouth, of the bronchial
tubes and of tse skin and the patient
turns black; this is the worst form of
the disease. Continent smallpox is the
next worse and d1screte smallpox is the
least dangerous. When the pustules are
comparatively few they are separated
sometimes widely, from each other, and
the disease is termed discrete When
they are very numerous they touch each
other and run together, and then it is
termed continent. Sometimes these two
forms are barely distinguishable from one
another
In the discrete form the fever common
ly subsidies on the appearance of the erup-
ton and where the pustules are few il
may not return, but where they are many
their maturation is commonly attended
with more or less fever. With the ap-
pearance of the eruptions on the surface
sore throat is complained of, the tonsis
are swollen and pustules appear upon
the roof of the mouth and the inside of
the cheeks. When smallpox is continent
the simultaneous cellula tissue is involved
In the disease, the swelling is great and
by the fifth day the patient is commonly
unable to open his eyes. Sometimes the
eruption on the face coalescee into one
huge sore it is attended with tormentlng
itch and the fever is of the typhoid kind
The disease is always attended by pecu-