NATURE AND SYMPTOMS OF SMALLPOX 423 



cow) . There was a storm of protest against this method of inocu- 

 lation. Newspapers printed bitter attacks and said people would 

 show the characters of cows if they had this filthy material from 

 a cow introduced in them. The results, however, were so successful 

 that vaccination was gradually accepted as the only means of con- 

 trolling smallpox, and the old method of inoculation was soon 

 forbidden. Napoleon had all his soldiers who had never had 

 smallpox vaccinated. The Empress of Russia urged its practice 

 in Russia. Spain and Sicily also introduced vaccination. 



About 1800, at a meeting of the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences, presided over by the President of the United States, 

 John Adams, the introduction of vaccination into America was 

 first considered. A supply of vaccine material was secured, and 

 a Dr. Waterhouse vaccinated his five-year-old boy. He afterward 

 vaccinated other members of his family. They became immune 

 to smallpox infection. Later Thomas Jefferson became interested 

 and he had the members of his family vaccinated. From that 

 time on the practice of vaccination spread rapidly through the 

 country. The vaccine virus tends to stimulate certain cells of 

 the body to produce substances known as anti-bodies which re- 

 main in the blood as a protection against disease. When a vac- 

 cinated person is exposed to smallpox, he is already fortified by 

 the anti-bodies which will act against the smallpox bacteria. 



Nature and symptoms of smallpox. Smallpox mortality is 30 

 per cent greater among unvaccinated than among vaccinated 

 persons. Children are particularly susceptible. In the Montreal 

 epidemic of 1885-1886, 2717 of the 3164 deaths were children 

 under ten years of age. 



Smallpox is caused by a filterable virus. About three days 

 after becoming ill with smallpox, little abscesses or pustules 

 form. If the pustules are deep, affecting the dermis seriously, 

 pits or pock-marks will always show on the skin. The scales 

 and crusts from the healing pustules are highly infectious, as are 



