Smallpox Flashcards
What does Green say about the origins of smallpox?
It has the weak narrative
Where is smallpox originated from?
- Horn of Africa
- mutated from other kinds of pox like cowpox
What is unique about what kinds of host can catch smallpox?
Smallpox is unique to humans
Contamination (3)
- infects the lungs, where the virus replicates in the cells
- incubation ca. 12 days
- body becomes awash with dead cells
symptoms (5)
- fever, headaches, backaches
- rash, esp of sebaceous glands
- 10-50% mortality
- infection before rash
- infectious until last scab is gone (4 weeks)
How did it spread to the New World?
- African tribes already had the disease when they were stolen to become slaves
- the sick were often sent to the coasts, where they would be often end up being captured
What happened to the Taino population when Columbus landed?
1492 population; 250,000
1517 population: only 14,000 remained
Hernando Cortès and his conquest of Mexico
- landed in 1519 in Cuba where sp had claimed 1/3 of the population
- revered as. God since he was relatively immune to smallpox
- defeated an Aztec force of 5000 with an army of 900
How do Jesuit Missionaries come into this?
They would carry the smallpox from Europe with them on their missions, where those they were preaching to would get infected
How was smallpox mainly spread to North America?
Colonisers, traders, and, Jesuit missionaries
What was the settlers’ response to smallpox?
- God’s will
- practiced quarantine against the First Nations
what happened to the Huron population?
population halved between 1636 and 1640
extinct by 1650
How did the settlers use smallpox?
They gave Indians blankets from the small plague hospital as a form of chemical warfare
Pontiac’s Rebellion
1763-1766
- Bouquet suggests that Amherst uses blankets to inoculate the Indians
- Amherst: you would do well to innoculate the Indians by means of blankets
Who first came up with the idea of inoculation to generate immunity?
Lady Mary Worley Montague
