Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1903-02-28
MANY SEIZED BY PEST
PERSONS IN ALL PARTS OF THE
UNITED STATES AFFLICTED.
Ae As Claimed that The~e Are $4,000
eases OF the Dread Disease Through
out the country-Epidemic Is Alarm
Ing In Several States,

| smallpox is more widely spread over
Tue United States now than ever before
una the disease is of the deadliest type
o'ek KNOWN. Conservative estimates,
Daseo upon reports received from the
aorty-nVe States, show that at least So
wv persons in this country are afflicted
Win the malady. In some instances the
ueath rate IS as high as 50 per cent. The
epidemic is indeed alarming, as, with q
continuation of cold weather, the disease
WIZ thrive and remain unchecked In its
oeatn-deallng." This is a statement
mace by DIR. Heman Spalding, chief
medical inspector Chicago health depart
ment.
chicago alone has had eghty-two
cases of smallpox brought to the notice
Oh the health department already this
year. Twelve of those cases have re-
suited In death. Last year there were
ooo cases in the city, but they were of
the mlldest type, only four persons dy-
ing. From Jan. l to Feb. 10 last year
there were only twentyfour cases in the
Isolation hospital. To-day there are
fifty one.
THE country is full of smallpox. And
or all the cases that have come under the
notice of health officers in the various
States nearly every person having the
disease never was vaccinated. Not one
or the I27 cases of smallpox discovered
III Chicago within the last four years
showed marks of vaccination, as defined
IN our pamphlet, Vaccination Creed,
which we issued to impart information
concerning the disease to doctors and the
public in general. Of those 727 persons,
G62 never had been yaccinated at all,
though most of them claimed they had.
This aversion to vaccination is a fatal
absurdity. Of the remaining G5 cases
Of had old, irregular and doubtful scars,
said to have been the result Of vaccina-
ton.
vaccination should be repeated until
the susceptibility to vaccine is exhaust
ed. When this is done it is impossible
to contract smallpox. This is the pro-
lection given the employees of the health
department who handle and nurse small
pox patients, and bury the dead from
the disease and in no instance, among
the hundreds so employed, has any one
of these employees ever contracted small
pox."
Reports show that there is hardly a
lo"h olS eHOuSu 10 appear ou Ilc map
that has no smallpox cases. In San
Francisco to-day there are sixty cases.
Other cities of California have all the
way from two to ten, and some of them
twenty. Denver has thirty-seven, while
nearly every town in Colorado has it's
smallpox case. Some reports say that
the disease is more prevalent in Indiana
and Minnesota, but DR.. Spalding says
this is not the fact. For instance, In
diana is given 5000 cases and Minnesota
twice that number.
1.-THE natural inference that the cpl
demic centers in these two States Is
erroneous" said DR.. Spalding, "for this
reason: Those two States merely have q
more thorough system of getting reports
from the town and city health officers,
hence their statistics are more complete.
Illinois Is credited only with 17I cases.
Now, anyone familiar with the present
smallpox epidemic knows those figures
are incomplete. Iowa is given only about
100 cases of smallpox by the reports at
hand"