The history of small-pox in Australia, 1788-1908 / compiled from various sources by J.H.L Clumpston.

Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The history of small-pox in Australia, 1788-1908 / compiled from various sources by J.H.L Clumpston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    I would further point out that very little reliance should be placed on vaccination unless the l3^mph be taken from the cow, and not, as now, passed through one constitution to another from year to year, giving rise frequently to symptoms of blood poisoning, whilst immunity from disease must be very doubtful. I am, &c., M.D. 22nd Jan., 1877. Small-pox on the Murray. To the Editor oj the Argus. Sir,—^That small-pox decimated the aborigines dwelling below the great north-west bend of the Murray, I can positively say, and I believe that the period of about 40 years since is correct. I have seen many natives whose faces were as deeply pitted as those so frequently met with in England 60 years ago. On the banks of the Murray, nearly opposite to Blanche Town, there was, about 32 years since, a native cemetery, containing hundreds of graves of various sizes, and these it was said were the victims of a disease brought from Encounter Bay, a place much frequented by whaling ships long before the colonization of South Australia ; the distance from one place to the other being about 100 miles. The cemetery was on a large sandj^ flat, abounding with rare and beautiful blossoming shrubs. Each grave was enclosed by boughs, forming a rustic arbour, the sandy soil being heaped to a height of about 18 inches over each body. There were at that time many natives living who had recovered from the epidemic, and related the occurrence, but as there is an insurmountable barrier to all native tradition from the inviolable rule of never speaking of the dead, all corroborative information must come from trust- worthy white men. Intimate acquaintance and influence with the aborigines of South Australia for a period of some years induces me to send the above. Yours, &c,, THOS. MOULDEN. 22nd January, 1877. ' . To the Editor of the Argus. Sir,—In reply to M.D.'s letter in this morning's Argus, ]3ermit me to say that I have seen scores of natives pitted with what was called in the bush native-pock, and have known its effects to be mistaken even by experts for those of small-pox. Under these circumstances, I hope I may be permitted deferentially to think it more likely that M.D. may have mistaken the effects of a disease which he did not see in operation, than that Sturt and all his party saw small-pox in full career and did not know it, though, as most of them came from England, they must have been acquainted with its appearance. Yours, &c., G. W. RUSDEN. 23rd January, 1877. To the Editor of the Argus. Sir,—^I have read the letter of Mr. Busden in your Monday's issue, and am a little taken aback at the positive assertions therein made, that small-pox cannot have been a disease of the aborigines of these colonies some 40 years or more ago, as I have been under the impression that the opposite is the fact. As I have not been resident in these colonies for the period mentioned, it is out of my power to speak of such a distant date as 1837, but I have a varied experience of the blacks of Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia, extending over a period of 29 years, and during all that time it has been matter-of-course belief with me that they were subject to attacks of the disease at periodical intervals. When I was on the Upper Dawson Biver, in Queensland, in charge of the telegraph station at Taroom, about thirteen years ago, I saw many blacks whose appearance would lead anyone to think they lia.d had the small-pox. They were pitted all over with good-sized marks, and one of the tribe was deaf and dumb, from some cause said or understood to be the result of this disease. Again, when in charge of Barrow Creek station on the overland telegraph line, I had occasion to visit Tennent's Creek—a station