Anæsthesia, hospitalism, hermaphroditism and a proposal to stamp out small-pox and other contagious diseases / by Sir James Y. Simpson, Bart. ; edited by Sir W.G. Simpson, Bart.

  • James Young Simpson
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anæsthesia, hospitalism, hermaphroditism and a proposal to stamp out small-pox and other contagious diseases / by Sir James Y. Simpson, Bart. ; edited by Sir W.G. Simpson, Bart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    559/588 (page 543)
    PEOPOSAL TO STAMP OUT SMALL-POX AND OTHER CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. In despite of the marvellous protective influence of vaccination, the mortality produced by small-pox in Great Britain is still very great and startling. Like other contagious maladies it varies much in the number of its victims from one year to another; yet, during the ten years from 1856 to 1865, small-pox destroyed in this island 51,034 individuals. In one of the last of these years, 1863, not less than 7610 died from it j and in 1864 its amount of mor- tality reached to 9425. Such figures as these numerals denote scarcely convey to the mind an adequate idea of the deplorable loss of life still resulting among us from the ravages of this one malady ; the more so as the mortality from the disease is distributed through the whole scattered population of the island. But (to state it otherwise) if in any one year some overwhelming catastrophe destroyed all the living popu- lation of the counties of Nairn or Kinross; or swept away every living inhabitant of the cathedral cities of Lichfield, Ripon, or Wells ; or slaughtered four or five regiments of soldiers; or smothered as many as five or six times the number of members of the House of Commons—such an event would assuredly appal and terrify the public and its guardians; and the strongest measures would, no doubt, be called for, with the view of preventing the recurrence of the catastrophe, provided its prevention were at all possible. Is the similar amount of human slaughter to which our population is constantly subject by small-pox—not once, but continuously; not one year, but each year—preventible ] I believe that it is so; and I believe further that the hygienic measures required for effecting this prevention would be found neither specially difiicult nor expensive to the country, while they would save annually hundreds, if not thousands, of our population from death, by a disease which, even when it spares life, too often leaves permanent lesions, and a broken and damaged constitution. To understand the means to which I point, let it be premised