The Greatest Killer: Smallpox in HistoryOnce known as the "great fire" or "spotted death," smallpox has been rivaled only by plague as a source of supreme terror. Although naturally occurring smallpox was eradicated in 1977, recent terrorist attacks in the United States have raised the possibility that someone might craft a deadly biological weapon from stocks of the virus that remain in known or perhaps unknown laboratories. In The Greatest Killer, Donald R. Hopkins provides a fascinating account of smallpox and its role in human history. Starting with its origins 10,000 years ago in Africa or Asia, Hopkins follows the disease through the ancient and modern worlds, showing how smallpox removed or temporarily incapacitated heads of state, halted or exacerbated wars, and devastated populations that had never been exposed to the disease. In Hopkins's history, smallpox was one of the most dangerous-and influential-factors that shaped the course of world events. |
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Table des matières
| 20 | |
| 22 | |
| 42 | |
Deaths from smallpox in London and Geneva 15801869 | 86 |
Deaths from smallpox in nineteenthcentury Prussia Austria | 92 |
St Nicaise patron saint of smallpox | 100 |
Three Heavenly Flowers | 103 |
TouShen Niang Niang Chinese goddess of smallpox | 136 |
Five The Spotted Death | 164 |
Early outbreaks and possible spread of smallpox in Africa | 170 |
Shapona Yoruba god of smallpox | 201 |
OmoluObaluaye Brazilian and Cuban god of smallpox | 232 |
Seven A Destroying Angel | 234 |
Spread of V minor in North America | 288 |
Eight Erythrotherapy and Eradication | 295 |
Decline in smallpoxendemic countries 3069 | 306 |
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According Angola appeared army arrived attack became began Boston Brazil British caravans caused chickenpox China Chinese coast colonies Cotton Mather cowpox deaths from smallpox described died of smallpox Dimsdale disease early Edward Jenner eighteenth century emperor empress endemic England epidemic epidemic of smallpox Ethiopia Europe European fever France French Hispanola History hospital Huayna Capac hundred ibid illness immunity India Indians infected inoculation introduced island isolation Japan Japanese Jenner killed king later London Mather measles medicine Mexico million months nineteenth century North America outbreak of smallpox palace Panchen Lama pandemic percent physician plague plate population practice prince pustules quarantine queen rash recorded reported Rhazes royal Russia ship Shitala shogun slaves smallpox epidemics Smallpox Eradication smallpox goddess smallpox victims smallpox virus soldiers South Spain Spanish spread Sudan suffered syphilis thousand persons tion tribes vaccination Variola villages virus Waterhouse West Africa wrote
Fréquemment cités
Page 38 - The havoc of the plague had been far more rapid : but the plague had visited our shores only once or twice within living memory ; and the smallpox was always present, filling the churchyards with corpses, tormenting with constant fears all whom it had not yet stricken, leaving on those whose lives it spared the hideous traces of its power...
Page 211 - Elevated high above his vassals came the Inca Atahuallpa, borne on a sedan or open litter, on which was a sort of throne made of massive gold of inestimable value.
Page 48 - People send to one another to know if any of their family has a mind to have the small-pox : they make parties for this purpose, and when they are met (commonly fifteen or sixteen together), the old woman comes with a nut-shell full of the matter of the best sort of small-pox, and asks what vein you please to have opened. She immediately rips open that you offer to her with a large needle (which gives you no more pain than a common scratch), and puts into the vein as much matter as can lie upon the...
Page 48 - Every year thousands undergo this operation; and the French embassador says pleasantly, that they take the smallpox here by way of diversion, as they take the waters in other countries. There is no example of any one that has died in it'; and you may believe I am very well satisfied of the safety of this experiment, since I intend to try it on my dear little son.
Page 48 - ... to write to some of our doctors very particularly about it, if I knew any one of them that I thought had virtue enough to destroy such a considerable branch of their revenue for the good of mankind. But that distemper is too beneficial to them not to expose to all their resentment the hardy wight that should undertake to put an end to it. Perhaps, if I live to return, I may, however, have courage to war with them.
Page 47 - The smallpox, so fatal and so general amongst us, is here entirely harmless by the invention of engrafting (which is the term they give it). There is a set of old women who make it their business to perform the operation. Every autumn in the month of September, when the great heat is abated, people send to one another to know if any of their family has a mind to have the smallpox.
Page 270 - We shall not fail to teach our children to speak the name of Jenner ; and to thank the Great Spirit for bestowing upon him so much wisdom and so much benevolence.
Page 48 - ... are not superstitious, who choose to have them in the legs, or that part of the arm that is concealed. The children or young patients play together all the rest of the day, and are in perfect health to the eighth. Then the fever begins to...
Page 79 - Vaccinae, A Disease Discovered in Some of the Western Counties of England. Particularly Gloucestershire, and Known by the Name of the Cow Pox...
Page 38 - The smallpox was always present, filling the churchyard with corpses, tormenting with constant fears all whom it had not yet stricken, leaving on those whose lives it spared the hideous traces of its power, turning the babe into a changeling at which the mother shuddered, and making the eyes and cheeks of the betrothed maiden objects of horror to her lover.

