Small-pox and vaccination.

Date:
1921
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Small-pox and vaccination. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    had previously had small-pox, leaving 914 susceptible persons. Among these there were during the epidemic 612 cases with 72 deaths, and at the end of the epidemic there were 302 persons who, having escaped the attack, are referred to in the record as ‘to have the small-pox.” When small-pox appeared in a district in Se aeaiaiticn days the population was sharply divided into two classes, viz., those who had survived an attack by small-pox and those who had not suffered from the disease. Occasionally a person who had suffered an attack, and probably a mild attack, in infancy, might be again attacked by small-pox in the later years of life when the protection afforded by the previous attack had passed away, but as a general rule second attacks by the disease were rare. The susceptible population were chiefly those who had been born since the last epidemic prevalence of small-pox, and thus the incidence of the disease fell mainly on children. These old records show not only the severity of the epidemics but, what is of great interest, viz., how small a proportion of the _total population had not already suffered previous attack by small-pox. Thus, on Ist January, 1775, at Chester (which had at that time a population of 14,713 persons), when small-pox had been epidemic in the year 1774, it was ascertained that 1,060 persons, or about 7 per cent. of the population, had not had the small-pox during the previous year or at any earlier time. Age inerdence a Small-pox in Pre-vaceination Days.—The old death registers show that a very large number of the deaths occurred among children under two years of age. At Chester, when the epidemic of small-pox occurred in 1774, 1,202 persons were attacked by the disease, and of these 202 died. All the 202 deaths were children under 10 years of age, and a quarter of them were under one year. In Warrington, in 1773, with an estimated population of 8,000, an epidemic of small-pox occurred, and 211 deaths resulted: all the fatal cases were among children under 9 years of age. In Kilmarnock, between 1728 and 1763, estimated population 3,350 to 4,200, there were 622 deaths from small-pox ; in respect of nine of these deaths the ages are not given, but of the remaining 615 only 7 were above 10 years of age. . It was estimated by Daniel Bernouilli, a distinguished mathe- matician writing in 1760-5, that small-pox carried off the thirteenth or fourteenth part of each generation. Inoculation of the Small-pox.—The fixed belief that every person must suffer attack by small-pox at some period of his life led to the adoption of the practice of inoculation with the virus of the disease. By this means persons who had not suffered attack by the natural small-pox were able to decide beforehand to undergo the disease at a time that suited their convenience. This method of acquiring the small-pox artificially was introduced in 1721, and in the hands of certain inoculators it was success- a (78)15755 Wt 18886—498/2114 3500 9/21 (Item14) E&S A2