The
first serious outbreak of smallpox occurred in Rome in AD 165. It
is estimated that in a fifteen year period about a third of Rome's
population died of the disease. Smallpox first arrived in England
in the 16th century. Symptoms include fever and skin-eruptions. If
patients recovered they suffered permanent scaring of the skin. In
the 18th century smallpox was responsible for more than 10% of all
deaths. About 15% of people who caught smallpox died of the disease.
In 1796 Edward Jenner made the first successful
vaccination against the disease. In the 19th century vaccination provided
a highly effective means for controlling the disease. Smallpox has
now been eradicated throughout the world.
(1)
Edwin Chadwick, The Sanitary
Conditions of the Labouring Population (1842)
The registered mortality from all specified diseases in
England and Wales was, during the year 1838, 282,940, or 18 per thousand
of the population. These deaths are exclusive of the deaths from old
age, which amounted to 35,564, and the deaths from violence, which
amounted to 12,055. The deaths from causes not specified were 11,970.
The total amount of deaths was 342,529 for that year. In the year
following the total deaths were 338,979, of which the registered deaths
from old age were 35,063, and the deaths from violence 11,980. The
proportion of deaths for the whole population was 21 per thousand.
The annual slaughter in England and Wales from preventable causes
of typhus which attacks persons in the vigour of life, appears to
be double the amount of what was suffered by the Allied Armies in
the battle of Waterloo.
(2)
Edwin Chadwick, The
Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population (1842)
| Number
of Deaths in 1838 and 1839 |
| Disease |
1838 |
1839 |
| Typhus |
24,577 |
25,991 |
| Smallpox |
16,268 |
9,131 |
| Measles |
6,514 |
10,937 |
| Whooping
Cough |
9,107 |
8,165 |
| Consumption
|
59,025 |
59,559 |
| Pneumonia |
17,999 |
18,151 |
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
|
