Library of Medicine
|Smallpox is another
of the fearsome diseases that our
ancestors experienced. Smallpox is a very contagious viral disease, with
consequences that were often deadly or disfiguring. Its characteristic symptoms are high fever,
quickened pulse, intense headache, vomiting, pain, and eruptions of dark red
spots on the third or fourth day that turn into pimples and pustules. These distinctive symptoms make smallpox
easy to identify in the historical reports.
from major smallpox epidemics in 1711, 1738, 1760. Because Charleston was a
major port city, most smallpox outbreaks began when a ship with infected
passengers arrived. The city’s population was too small to sustain smallpox
as an endemic disease, so all susceptible persons were at risk during the
|In the 1720's,
variolation, or smallpox inoculation, was introduced as a preventive measure.
A healthy person had pus from an infected person inserted into a small
incision. The result was usually a
milder form of the disease that left the person with immunity, but death
resulted for 1% to 5% of cases. This compared with a death rate of 10% to 50%
for smallpox acquired naturally. The
practice of variolation also contributed to the spread of the disease in many
|John Duffy. (1953) Epidemics
in Colonial America. Louisiana
State University Press.