Of such less populous places we have an instance in Blandford, Dorset. Particulars of its smallpox have been given in connexion with general inoculations; here let us note that in this typical market town of 2110 inhabitants (in 1773), the known epidemics were in 1731, 1741, 1753 and 1766—at intervals of ten or a dozen years. In the villages the intervals were longer. Haygarth gives the instance of three parishes in Kent with only ten deaths from smallpox in twenty years, and of Seaford, in Sussex, with one death “eleven years ago[1007].” An authentic instance is the parish of Ackworth, Yorkshire, whose register of burials contains only one smallpox death in the ten years 1747-57, while there are thirteen such deaths in it in the next ten-years period, clearly the effects of an epidemic, perhaps in 1766[1008]. This parish, judged by the excess of births, was not so healthy as many[1009], while its mortality by “fevers” was considerable. The following somewhat general statements are made for the parish of Kirkmaiden, Wigtonshire[1010]:
| 1717. | “Nearly thirty-seven died of the smallpox.” | |
| 1721. | Forty-eight died, “mostly of fevers.” | |
| 1725. | Forty-three died, “mostly of the smallpox.” |
By means of this law of periodic return, at short intervals in the populous industrial towns, at longer intervals in the market towns, and at very long intervals in the villages, we may realize in a measure what smallpox was at its worst. It was the great infective scourge of infancy and childhood, admitting but few or feeble rivals or competitors, as we shall see in the historical accounts of measles, whooping-cough and scarlatina. The table of epidemics from 1721 to 1727, given at p. 518, is of a kind that might have been furnished by any series of years in the 18th century; they were so much of a commonplace that hardly anyone thought of chronicling them unless for a special statistical purpose, such as the inoculation controversy. Thus, the Salisbury epidemic of 1723, with 1244 cases and 165 deaths, must have been only one of a series at intervals, which may or may not have become more frequent, or of different age-incidence, or of more fatal type, as the century proceeded. We have a glimpse of one of them in 1752-3. Lord Folkestone having given a hundred pounds to the poor of Salisbury, it was ordered on 15 December, 1752, “that five shillings be given to every inhabitant who hath had the smallpox in the natural way since 1 September, or that shall have it hereafter.” The epidemic went on for months; it was not until the end of 1753 that the mayor advertised the city free of smallpox. In September of that year ten guineas were voted to Mr Hall, the apothecary, for his trouble during the smallpox, and a like sum to Mr Dennis, the surgeon[1011].
The year 1753 was also the time of one of the periodical Blandford outbreaks. For a year or two before there had been much smallpox at Plymouth, the account of which by Huxham will serve as a sample of his numerous references to the disease there from the beginning of his annals in 1728.
In May, 1751, smallpox was brought in by Conway’s regiment; it spread in July and August, becoming worse in type in the autumn as it became more common. In January 1752 it was still prevalent, the pustules often crude, crystalline, undigested to the end; sometimes very confluent, small and sessile; sometimes black and bloody, attended now and then with petechiae. In March the type grew more mild; in April the malady was still up and down, some cases being of a bad sort. It became more frequent again in June, and was epidemic all the summer, the eruption often confluent, small, sometimes black, with haemorrhages from the nose, especially in children. In August it was epidemic everywhere, and more fatal, becoming milder in September and October. In December, “the crusts of the black confluent kind many times remained for at least thirty days after the eruption.” It declined from January, 1753, and entirely ceased in May, having had a prevalence of two years[1012].
Smallpox in London in the middle of the 18th century.
There is hardly any epidemic malady in London of which so few particular records remain as of smallpox, except in the bills of mortality. The monthly notes in the Gentleman’s Magazine from 1751 to 1755 by Dr Fothergill, who practised at that time in White Hart Court, Lombard Street (having afterwards removed westward to Harpur Street, Red Lion Square), contain the following references to it:
1751, May. Smallpox uncommonly mild in general, few dying of it in comparison of what happens in most years.
1751, December. Smallpox began to make their appearance more frequently than they had done of late, and became epidemical in this month. They were in general of a benign kind, tolerably distinct, though often very numerous. Many had them so favourably as to require very little medical assistance, and perhaps a greater number have got through them safely than has of late years been known.
1752, January. A distinct benign kind of smallpox continued to be the epidemic of this month.... A few confluent cases, but rarely. February—Children and young persons, unless the constitution is very unfavourable, get through it very well, and the height to which the weekly bills are swelled ought to be considered in the present case as an argument of the frequency, not fatality, of this distemper.