EPIDEMICS. (SMALL-POX CHOLERA.) 



317 



and the physician alike meet with this obsta- 

 cle in their researches. A wise and enlight- 

 ened public opinion, recognizing the advantage 

 of close observation and of permanent record, 

 may in the future remove this obstacle and 

 governmental records afford the student more 

 facts and therefore more facilities to learn 

 aright. 



Small-pox. Small-pox is not indigenous to 

 either Europe or America. Into the former 

 continent it was introduced, by the Saracens, 

 from Africa, about 622 and 710 A. D. Its early 

 history is shrouded in obscurity. Of its origin 

 we know nothing, but we do know now that 

 it never occurs save as a consequence of infec- 

 tion conveyed from one person to another. 



On its first introduction it ravaged Spain, 

 then spread over Europe, sparing, however, 

 for a time such isolated countries as Denmark, 

 where it did not appear until 1527. It was 

 carried to the West Indies in 1517, and reached 

 Mexico in 1520 and Brazil in 1563. Farther 

 north it first appeared in Maryland, having 

 been brought there by an English ship in the 

 early part of the seventeenth century. Thence 

 it spread rapidly through Virginia, the Caro- 

 linas, New England, and other portions of the 

 colonies. 



The epidemic force of small-pox was, how- 

 ever, broken by the discoveries of inoculation 

 and vaccination. Lady Mary Wortley Monta- 

 gue introduced inoculation for the small-pox 

 from Turkey, her son having been successfully 

 inoculated in 1718. She was allowed by way 

 of experiment to inoculate seven convicts who, 

 on recovery, were pardoned. A small-pox 

 hospital was opened in London in 1746, but 

 inoculation had not been universally adopted 

 when Jenner, in 1796, discovered the safe and 

 sure method of vaccination with the f us from 

 cow-pox. The last notable visitation of small- 

 pox began in 1870, running over all of Europe 

 and America, and abating in 1873. 



Cholera. After the discovery of vaccination 

 by Jenner had quelled the ravages of small- 

 pox, Europe enjoyed comparative immunity 

 from epidemics until the appearance of a new 

 pestilence (the cholera) before unheard of 

 there. Long known in India, this disease first 

 began to attract the attention of Europeans in 

 1817. So slow, so steady, so even in its prog- 

 ress is the march of cholera, that it has been 

 said to average the daily journey of a man. 



In the month of August, 1817, cholera broke 

 out in India in two separate places, viz., at 

 Chittagong and Jessore. In 1818 it attacked 

 Calcutta and invaded Hindustan. Ceylon and 

 Malacca. Burmah and Sumatra, were attacked 

 the following year. Java, Borneo, and the 

 Philippines were attacked in 1820. and in 1821 

 Persia, Syria, and China. Not until 1823 did 

 the cholera reach the frontier of Europe, where 

 it finally spent its strength along the shores of 

 the Caspian Sea. 



A short respite followed this first invasion, 

 and the plague slept until 1829; but in this 



fatal year it moved from Persia to Bokhara, 



Tartary, the shores of the Caspian Sea, ravaged 

 Siberia, and even penetrated into Russia. In 

 1830 the plague desolated the empire of the 

 Czar, entering Moscow on the 20th of Septem- 

 ber. The ravages were frightful. In two 

 months 4,385 persons died. Still creeping 

 slowly westward, in August, 1831, the plagne 

 invaded Prussia and Austria, slaying 1,400 

 in Berlin and 2,000 in Vienna. From these 

 points it spread widely. The Baltic provinces 

 suffered first, after which, leaping the North 

 Sea, it entered Great Britain, and on Jan. 27, 

 1832, broke out in Edinburgh, and on Febru- 

 ary 10 in London. 



This epidemic seems to have entered France 

 from England. On the 15th of March, 1K32, 

 it was at Calais, and (>n the 28th of the same 

 month at Paris, whence it extended to Holland, 

 and in 1833 to Portugal. Spain suffered in 

 1834. The mortality was very great. During 

 the six months that the cholera raged in Paris 

 it found 18,406 victims out of a total popula- 

 tion of 645,693, or 23 deaths for 1,000 of in- 

 habitants. Switzerland alone of all the na- 

 tions escaped its visitations. 



On June 8, 1832. the cholera made its first 

 appearance in Quebec, Canada, having un- 

 doubtedly been transmitted from Great Brit- 

 ain. Thence it spread rapidly over the Ameri- 

 can continent. 



The second visitation of cholera was no less 

 deadly than the first. From 1837 to 1847 

 Europe had been free from it, but India had 

 suffered during the entire decade. In 1845, 

 however, the plague appeared in Tartary and 

 a few months later in Persia, whence it spread 

 rapidly to Egypt via Bagdad and Mecca. In 

 1847 it had reached the shores of the Cas- 

 pian Sea, and in the autumn of the same year 

 appeared almost simultaneously in Moscow and 

 Constantinople. Not until early in 1848 did 

 it appear in St. Petersburg, but very quickly 

 afterward it was found in Poland, Holland, 

 France, Belgium, and England. From France 

 the epidemic spread to Italy (Switzerland being 

 again spared) and to the Mediterranean na- 

 tions. It reached the United States in 1849, 

 ravaging various portions of the country from 

 May to November, and was particularly severe 

 in the Mississippi valley. 



The third visitation of cholera differed from 

 the two preceding, in that it did not start from 

 India, but originated in the Baltic states, ap- 

 pearing at Copenhagen in July and August, 

 1853. Upon this occasion the spread of the 

 plague was unusually rapid, and nearly all of 

 Europe was visited by it before the end of the 

 year. By July, 1854. it had made its appear- 

 ance in Northern Africa and Western Asia. 

 It raged with violence among the armies in the 

 Crimea. 



The fourth and last epidemic came from the 

 East, reaching Europe through Persia, Mecca, 

 Suez, and Egypt, and entering France through 

 the port of Marseilles, in June, 1865. It rav- 



