page_title: History of Uxbridge, Massachusetts
section_title: Public health footnotes
hierarchical_section_title: History of Uxbridge, Massachusetts / Photos / Public health footnotes
caption_attribution_description: English: A female mosquito of the Culicidae family (Culiseta longiareolata). Size: about 10mm length Location: Lisbon region, Portugal Türkçe: Culiseta longiareolata türü dişi bir sivrisinek. 中文: 一只母绒蚊属蚊子的细节
context_page_description: The history of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, founded in 1727, may be divided into its prehistory, its colonial history and its modern industrial history. Uxbridge is located on the Massachusetts-Rhode Island state line, and became a center of the earliest industrialized region in the United States.
context_section_description: Public health history began locally when smallpox, killed Nipmuc, settlers, and soldiers in Colonel Seth Read's regiment. Uxbridge voted against smallpox vaccine in a 1775 town meeting. Colonel Read, who was not "variolated", became very ill in the invasion of Canada. His unit suffered from smallpox and starvation forcing him to leave the Continental Army in 1776. Benjamin Rush advised, and George Washington ordered, the Continental Army to be vaccinated by "variolation". Dr. Samuel Willard treated local smallpox victims. Footnotes of public health history dotted the town's later history.
  Uxbridge published the first 123 years of the town's vital records, through 1850, recording ages, genders, names, and some causes of death. The death of "Benedict Arnold's widow" is recorded here in 1836. Premature, and accidental deaths were common.  Infant mortality was high, with children not surviving infancy or dying of childhood diseases. Infection-related deaths included "Quincy", smallpox, "dysentary", and tuberculosis. Local selectman Joseph Richardson died of smallpox in 1825. Senator Bezaleel Taft, Jr., (who was married to Samuel Spring's daughter), and textile pioneer Daniel Day, both died of tuberculosis, "consumption", in the 1840s.
  In December 1885, Leonard White (physician) published a report, on the deaths of two children, two weeks after "vaccination" by an unknown practitioner. An 1896 Uxbridge malaria outbreak prompted health officer, Dr. White, to write a report to the State Board of Health, which led to study of mosquito-malaria links, and the first efforts for malaria prevention. State pathologist Theobald Smith, warned White about possible mosquito-malaria links. Smith asked that White's son collect mosquito specimens for further analysis, and that citizens 1) add screens to windows, and 2)  drain collections of water. In the 20th century, the local board of health assured childhood immunizations, and school health, including polio vaccines.
caption: An 1896 Uxbridge malaria outbreak led to study of mosquito-malaria links and prevention
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