Dreaded Disease.

Before the nineteenth century smallpox swept eastern North America in recurrent epidemics. Unlike malaria or yellow fever, which kept mostly to the southern half of the eastern seaboard, smallpox could break out anywhere. For any early American its appearance in his or her neighborhood was an ever-present possibility, and there was even an atmosphere of inevitability about its arrival, much as there is about the flu today. "It is the opinion of some very observent men," according to a contemporary, "that there are few persons but what have the Small-pox at some period of their lives." It was a killer and was feared not only because it could spread like wildfire but also because it was an ugly, disfiguring disease. One writer concluded 'there is no disease so universal, and at the same time so mortal." Characteristics. The onset of smallpox...