The theocrat. [volume] (Zion City [i.e. Zion], Ill.) 1914-1949, 1914-12-19
TRYING TO WORK UP A SMALLPOX
SCARE AT CLEAN, NY.

case and the patient is only IN PED Dy ad-
vice of his physician, and it may only be
chickenpox The health authorities are
working hard to create little excitement
to get even with Olean, but there is only
the rifle caused by the health officers
imagination.
A Pennsylvania brakeman, Leo White,
is the victim. He was at a smoker in the
Aerie of the local lodge of Eagles the
evening before he was quarantined, and
the health officials assert that all present
were exposed to smallpox. This is wholly
untrue, for person coming down with
smallpox cannot communicate the disease
to anyone. 1t is only when the pustules
ripen into scabs and scales that it is dan.
gerous. But the health officer has used
this falsehood to call on the one hundred
and fifty present at the smoker to come
forward and be vaccinated. There is no
rush at the health Office.
The Clean Evening Times has the fol-
lowing very sensible editorial in its issue
of Dec 9Th:
Why Should Anyone Fear Smallpox?
Why should there be such a fear of
smallpox? In these days Of medical en-
lightenment, personal cleanliness and SAM
tary environments smallpox has or should
have lost all or nearly all of its terrors for
humanity 1t really should be classed
among the minor disease that annoy and
bother mankind. Nowadays smallpox is
anything but fatal, even dangerous
disease. More people die from measles in
year in New York State every year than
from smallpox. Far more, for that mat
ter.
Take the monthly bulletin of the State
Health Department, just issued, and COW
ering the month of September this year
The statistics in this bulletin show that
there were SOB cases Of measles in New
York State in the month of September.
Of this number nine cases of smallpox in
this State, not one Of which resulted fat
ally.
Typhoid and whooping cough are shown
to be far more dangerous than smallpox.
During last September, when there were
no deaths from smallpox anywhere IN New
York State, there were $40 cases OF whoop-
ing cough, of which 48 resulted fatally.
During the same month there were 900
cases Of typhoid in the State at large, OF
which III resulted fatally.
During the year 1913 there were 1,O18
deaths from typhoid fever in this State;
818 deaths from whooping cough and OIL
from measles-and just one death from
smallpox!
Now, just what do these figures mean?
Why, nothing more or less than this dread
of smallpox which still persists is nothing
but legacy Of fear handed from the dark
days when smallpox was scourge which
took it's fearful toll Of human life. It's
nothing of that kind today. It's another
proof Of the truth Of the old adage which
condemned a dog by giving him bad
name. There's nothing much to be afraid
of in smallpox nowadays. There moth
ing left Of it but the name.
Typhoid and measles and whooping
cough are far, far more deadly than the
mild and gentle type of smallpox which
we have known of late years. Yet who
feels thrill Of fear when typhoid, measles
or whooping cough are mentioned? Look
once again at the figures furnished by the
New York State Department of Health
for the month of September and for the
year Of 1913, (the latest figures available)
and reassure yourself that the dreaded
smallpox is a mild and gentle visitant in
deed compared with any one Of these
maladies. Smallpox is merely bugaboo.
Tt is not menace or a danger.
In Battle Creek there is smallpox every
winter. Nobody pays any attention to it..
Sometimes, when certain doctors are parti-
cularly hard up, with the coal supply run
ming low, the suit becoming shiny and the
outlook showing that the food supply is ap-
preaching the liver stage, an attempt is
made to vaccinate somebody, but as this
requires extra exertion it is only when the
demand for cash is fierce that the effort is
made. Cases Of smallpox are isolated and
reasonable precautions taken.
The danger from smallpox nowadays is
wholly neolipihle