Confluent Smallpox

A fatal case

 
“Discrete” or “distinct” smallpox — the most common form of the disease — was bad enough, but there were even worse forms, though they were rarer.

In “Confluent” smallpox, the pustules grew so thick that they ran together into one massive sore.

• The skin pulled so tight due to the swelling infection that victims were said to look unnaturally old or young.
• Some were said to look as if they’d been wrapped in a tight gray caul.

 

Lady Mary, who was said to be “exceedingly full,”
probably had confluent smallpox.

 

A woman recovering from confluent smallpox

 
A third form of the disease was even worse: Hemorrhagic Smallpox.
 

All photos on this page by J. B. Byles, in Thomas Francis Ricketts, The Diagnosis of Smallpox (London and New York: Cassell and Co., 1908)