Smallpox: the “Speckled Monster”

Posted by on Feb 7, 2014

 


 

A Monstrous Disease

Smallpox — once known as “the speckled monster” — was a hideous disease that made its victims unrecognizably monstrous, and many died in agony. The terror it fueled was intense.

By some scientists’ reckoning, smallpox has killed more people than the bubonic plague and all of the wars of the twentieth century combined.

  • It is highly contagious.
  • It is lethal, killing up to 1-in-3 of its victims.
  • It is painful, grotesque, and foul-smelling.

Thankfully, smallpox no longer occurs as a disease “in the wild.” It was the first and remains the lone human disease that medical science has eradicated. (Rinderpest, which primarily affected cattle, is the only other disease we have successfully conquered.)

 

Beauty and the Beast

Smallpox caused high fevers, headache; it also produced a characteristic rash of pus-filled sores or pocks that could turn this:

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, La Grande Odalisque, Louvre, Paris

Into this:

Photo by J. B. Byles, in Thomas Francis Ricketts, The Diagnosis of Smallpox (London: 1908)

 

There’s Nothing Small About Smallpox

The label “small” rose from attempts to distinguish the disease from what was known as the “Great Pox” — syphilis. The rashes of syphilis and smallpox were once difficult to differentiate. They are not, however, related.

 

A Monster Conquered

Smallpox is a viral disease. Once contracted, it cannot be cured. It can, however, be prevented: that is the purpose of vaccination and variolation (the far more dangerous forerunner of vaccination).

In trying to save their children from this terrible disease, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Zabdiel Boylston fought to bring variolation to the attention of western science.

 

My Book

I’ve told their history — as thrilling as any novel — in my book The Speckled Monster: A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox. Despite all the horror, it’s a story of courage, heroism, and hope. I hope you will give it a try.

 

All About Smallpox: Next

Curious what it was like to suffer through smallpox? (WARNING: graphic photos)…
 

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