One thing which is often overlooked in the 

 history of smallpox is the fact that, in prevac- 

 cination days, every one had the disease; and, 

 at that time, it was a disease of childhood the 

 adult population consisting of those individuals 

 who had survived the attack. From the de- 

 scriptions of writers of that period, almost 

 every one was more or less pock marked and 

 the disease was regarded as a disagreeable ne- 

 cessity, much in the light that we now regard 

 measles. By the year 1600 smallpox had as- 

 sumed epidemic form throughout Europe and, 

 in the following two hundred years, it contin- 

 ued its ravages unchecked. 



Prevalence In England, smallpox was al- 

 ways present and but one person in twenty-five 

 escaped an attack of the disease. From 1761 

 to 1800 there died in the city of London an aver- 

 age of 2,037 persons yearly from smallpox. 

 Welch and Schamberg estimate that in the one 

 hundred years from 1700 to 1800, an average 

 of 600,000 persons died yearly from smallpox 

 throughout the world. 



Statistics show that smallpox has been un- 

 usually prevalent in the United States during 

 the past fifteen years, the epidemic of 1901-2-3 



