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


millions of women. o3s
liar odor. and in continent cases this is
excessively nauseous and offensive. The
eighth day of the eruption or the eleventh
of the disease is commonly the most fatal
day, while more patients die during the
second week of the disease than earlier
or later. Continent smallpox is always
dangerous, and the danger is aggravated
| if the patient be still in infancy or over
IS years of age or of feeble constitu-
ton.
When patients recover from severe cases
of smallpox blindness is an occasional re-
suit, and before the general introduction
of vaccination blindness from smallpox
was common. Besides Inflammation of
the eyes, glandular swe.lings and abscess-
es and bed sores are occasional complica-
tions. When the complication is with
diseases of the blood hemorrhages from
various organs occur. This runs into the
black disease. There is high fever and
the eruptions do not come out freely.
This form of the disease is almost inVa>
riably fatal. Women with the disease
have been known to give birth 10 child
presenting the characteristic eruption of
the smallpox
Treatment and Mortality.
mated at one-fourth or one-fifth of all
who are attacked. Like many other con-
tagious diseases, ii is subject to epidemic
influence, and when it prevails epidemlcal-
~ it is severer and more fatal. Lady
Mary Wortley Montagu. when in the Far
East discovered that incubation would
mitigate the severity of the disease. Her
discovery was that a minute portion OF
the virus being inserted under the skin
hn 1tGn xxyau rad loss vincent
and by her courage and persistence inocu-
lation was introduced into Europe. But
since the discovery of vaccination her
method has been dispensed with.
For long time the dangers of smallpox
were aggravated by the means used for
their cure. The theory was that the erup-
ton was an effort of nature to free the
system of morbid matter and that the
more abundant it was the better for the
patient. The eruption was accordingly
encouraged by warm drinks and heated
atmosphere. Syndenham was the first
to inculcate the necessity of free ventila-
ton and a cooling regimen. Says high
medical authority:
Mid cases require little except atten-
ton to hygenic measures; the disease is
attended with little danger and should
run its course uninfuenced by art. When
it is severe attention should be early d.
patient. The diet should be as nutri-
tious as he can bear and, when indicated
by the pulse, wine and stimulants should
be freely administered. The troublesome
itching, which causes great suffering.
may be aleviated by the application of
sweet oil. cold cream or lard opiates may
be useful to procure sleep and the bow
els should be occasionally moved by mild
laxatives or enemata."
Effects of Vaccination.
DR.. Edward Jenner discovered vaccina-
ton in 1886 and though in his own coun-
try of England he met with great opposi-
tion he lived to see vaccination generally
adopted. At first its advocates believed
that it would in all cases afford complete
and permanent protection from small
pox But soon it was found that those
who had been still liable to some extent
to attacks of the disease, and though in
general the disease was modified and
rendered shorter and mider still 1t re-
suited occasionally in death. But its ex-
treme value was easily demonstrated by
the statistics. In England by the last
half of the eighteenth century out of ev
cry 1000 death ninety-six occurred from
smallpox; in the first half of the century
lust closed out OF every 1000 deaths but
thirty-five were caused by that disease.
So by the middle Of the nine
teenth century most of the objections
that had been urged against vaccination
had been removed. In recent years the
number of deaths from the disease has
steadily been reduced The amount of
mortality in a country by smallpox seems
to bear a fixed relation to the extent to
which vaccination is carried out. In all
England and Wales for some years pre-
vious to 1858 the proportional mortality
by smallpox was twenty-one to 1000
deaths from all causes; in London it was
but sixteen to 1000; in Ireland, where vac
cination was much less general, it was 10
to 1000 and in Connaught, where oppo-
sition to vaccination was violent, it was
60 to 1000 On the other hand, In a num-
Der of European countries where vacein-
alton was more or less compulsory, the
proportionate number of deaths from
smallpox about the same time varied
from two per 1000 to eight per 1900 from
all causes.
The duration of the protective influence
of vaccination varies with different indi-
viduals. The same thing happens with
regard to the protective influence Of an
attack of smallpox itself; in most persons
it lasts for life: many, after a period
more or less prolonged are liable to A
second attack, while cases have occurred
in which a third attack has proved fatal.
In all cases revaccnatio seems to be a
test of the loss or the presence OF the pro-
tective influence and to render this test
certain where revaccination does not sue
coed on the first trial it should be care
fully performed second time.