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

Date:
1914
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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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    amongst the natives throughout a vast extent of country about this time. From this wide extent and outbreaks referred to later, I believe the real solution lies in an intro- duction by Malays into Northern Australia. This will be referred to again later. We find, for instance, that in 1803, James Fleming,* one of Mr. Surveyor Grimes' expedition of exploration around Port Phillip Bay (where Melbourne now stands), mentions in his journal having seen two natives marked with the small-pox. Lieutenant ']'uckey,t speaking of the same place, says also The face of one of the natives was deeply pitted as if from the small-pox, though that disease is not known to exist in New Holland. A good account of an outbreak of an eruptive febrile disease amongst the natives of New South Wales in 1830 is given by Dr. George Bennett in his Wanderings in Neto South Wales (vol. i., pp. 148, 1834). His account is for the most part taken from an official report hy Dr. Mair, Assistant Surgeon of the 39th Regiment, who was appointed by the Governor to investigate the disease. I have not been able to trace a copy of this valuable report. Dr. Bennett says that about 1830, the disease appeared amongst the natives of Wellington Valley, and resembled small-pox in its principal characters. About a year later, it prevailed amongst the aborigines of the I^achlan, Burragorang, and Cox's River, and in 1832, he had seen pock-marked natives at Goulburn Plains and in other parts of the Colony. The natives called the disease thunna, thunna, or tunna, tunna, and they described it as being attended by sore throat, headache, and high febrile symptoms, upon the day previous to the appearance of the eruptions ; the latter were described to me as commencing in a similar manner, and passing through the same stages as is usual in small-pox, covering the face and all parts of the body, even to the soles of the feet and palms of the hands ; it was also stated that adults were more covered with eruptions, and suffered more severely from the disease than children, an<l the aggra- vation of the symptoms caused much mortality among them. Among the children it often occurred that only a few scattered eruptions woulcl appear, and the febrile sj^mp- toms also assume a very mild character. No deaths occurred in these cases. Dr. Bennett says that, as far as information at present extended, the disease appeared not to be an introduced one. He refers to its occurrence in the early days of the Colony and says that the Wellington Valley blacks did not regard it as of foreign introduction. None of the soldiers' children stationed at this last-named place contracted the disease though the natives around were suffering from it. He did not know whether the children had been vaccinated. Dr. Bennett summarizes Dr. Mair's report : Between 1789 and 1830 no record of the disease in natives appears. In August of that year, Mr. Brown, of Wallerawang, first saw the disease in five natives near the Castlereagh, He had heard of its occurrence among the tribes to the northward six months before. Mr. Brown did not see more cases till August, 1831, when three blacks, who had had communication with others recently arrived from the Lachlan when it was raging, developed the disease. The Wellington Valley blacks were attacked in October, 1830, and it lasted amongst them till December. According to the testimony of George Clash, a convict who had resided with the native tribes far in the interior for several years, the disease proceeded from the north-west coast, and spared none of the tribes as far as Liverpool Plains, attacking twenty and thirty at a time, none escaping its fury. (This reference to the north-west coast must not be considered trustworthy, coming from the source it did, as Sir Thomas Mitchell found that George Clash, or Clarke, known as the barber, romanced in other important particulars. North-west should perhaps read north-east, as Clarke lived with tribes in this direction). In some cases,- the natives pricked the pustules with a sharp-pointed fish-bone, then squeezing out their contents. Clash said that the natives considered it infectious and called it boulol.' Dr. Mair is quoted as thus describing the general course of the disease :— For several successive days the patient feels languid, indolent, and oppressed, loses his appetite, suffers from headache, pain of chest or stomach, increased heat of skin, and other febrile symptoms. The usual duration of this incipient stage appears to have been from two to eight days. It was followed by an eruption of small red spots resembling flea-bites, which generally commenced on the face, and gradually spread more or less thickly over the head, breast, and extremities ; the tongue ajid lips were likewise involved in the eruption, and the soles of the feet have been particularly remarked in ma>ny instances to be numerously studded with it. When the eruption had fully developed itself, which generally occurred in 24 hours, a remission was observed to take place in the febrile symptoms, but the patient began to complain much of pain in the throat, and could only swallow liquids. The small red spots, or papulae, were converted into vesicles or pustules, in periods, varying from three to seven or eight days ; the fluid contained in these vesicles or pustules is represented * Bonwiek's Port Phillip Settlemet]Lt, p. 15. t Idem. p. 28.