News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1902-03-12

about smallpox. 1t has been my
good fortune to spend about a year
all told in the Maryland General Hos
pital at Baltimore While there | was
examined and passed in all branches
of medicine, and after taking course
of study at the Massachusetts Cen
eral and Boston City Hospitals, was
examined in all branches at Harvard
University, an institution OF which |
am proud to be graduate; a little
later a successful examination was
taken before the Massachusetts State
Medical Society. 1t so happened
in every one of these examinations
something was asked bearing on
SMALLPOX and | shall never forget
them. While / was taking post
graduate course at Guys Hospital in
London, England, man afflicted
with smallpox was, through some
mistake, admitted into one of the
wards, but did notremain erelong.
Not one of the other patients, or the
nurses, took the disease. In Center
vile it is asked why every one who
was exposed to the disease did not
take it. How about the case cited
above?
Now what do all of the standard
authorities say about the disease !?
Professor Fox, who was at Hardwiek
said in the first edition of his work
that chickenpox never occurred in a
person past the age of puberty. In
subsequent editions he said rarely
ever and he had never seen a case"
DR.. Darling tells me that a large pro-
portion of the cases in Hardwick
were exatcly like these cases at Cen
terville; the cases at Hardwick were
up around the house the most of the
time. Prof. Osler of Baltimore, the
best authority in America on small
pox and medicine in general says
that "in fifteen thousand cases he
has never seen case OF chickenpox
in an adult" This is the man who
studied the disease at Montreal years
ago when in one year three thousand
one hundred and sixty-four died from
smallpox. The same authority says
today that the disease has almost
lost its virulence which, in his opinion
as well as chat Of our own State
Board of Health is due to the fact
that there has been so much VAGINA
tion in the past from one generation
to another, the present generation
having inherited a certain immunity
from the past, that the disease does
not find a suitable soil in which to
flourish, hence the midness Of it.
John H. Musser, Professor of Clint
cal Medicine in the University of
Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, says
in his work on Medical Diagnosis,
second edition, page 789 Smallpox
occurs at all ages, chickenpox only
in childhood" Thomas NJ. Ratch,
Professor of Diseases of Children in
Harvard University, in his work on
diseases ofchildren, first edition, page
524 says; The susceptibility to the
contagion of chickenpox lessons after
ten years of age and almost entirely
disappears at twelve or thirteen
years of age, or in other words at
puberty One thing | forgot to
mention is that all of the above
authorities are unit in saying that
smallpox is the only disease which is
likely to be mistaken for chickenpox
or vice versa. On page $50 of the
Journal of the American Medical
Association of Mar. 8, 1902, will be
found the following; THE Statistics
of the State Board of Health of Ill
inois shows that since February l,
smallpox has been prevalent in 162
localities in So counties of the state,
Officials of the board state that the
foothold gained by the disease has
resulted largely from the lack of strict
quarantine, in certain localities the
people insisting in calling the disease
chickenpox, Cuban itch, or Illinois
scratches" | could go on giving
great many other points where the
cases at Centerville differ from chick
enpox, if time and space would per-
init. Any one wishing to study the
cases further can call at my office
where will show them the authors
quoted, show them my instructions
from the State Board and assist
them in any other way possible.
Ofcourse most physicians are pre-
pared to admit that it is barely pos
sible for chickenpOX to occur in a
person past II or 13 yesrs of age as
no doubt was the truth in DIR. Stiles
case at Cambridge; still the same
with the other members of
the State Board found seven mild
cases of smallpox in the neighboring
town of Underhill. Such a case as
DR.. Stiles is very VerYrare; still some
of the people in Centerville would
like to have you believe there were
five exceptions to this rulein "Spunky