Pox (61 page)

61
“Smallpox and Vaccination,”
BMJ
, 40 (Feb. 1901), 525.

62
See for example C. P. Wertenbaker, “Investigation of Smallpox at Columbia and Sumter, S.C.,”
PHR
, 13 (May 13, 1898), 468–70.

1
G. M. Magruder, “Passed Assistant Surgeon Magruder's Report on Smallpox at Little Rock, Ark.,”
PHR
, 13 (May 6, 1898), 437. See Louis Leroy,
Smallpox: Its Diagnosis, Treatment, Restriction and Prevention, with a Few Remarks upon the Present Epidemic
, issued by the Tennessee State Board of Health (Nashville: Tennessee State Board of Health, 1900).

2
See Charles V. Chapin, “Variation in Type of Infectious Disease as Shown by the History of Small-pox in the United States 1895–1912,”
Journal of Infectious Diseases
, 13 (1913), 171–96, esp. 173; Charles V. Chapin and Joseph Smith, “Permanency of the Mild Type of Smallpox,”
Journal of Preventive Medicine
, 6 (1932): 273–320.

3
C. P. Wertenbaker, “Plan of Organization for the Suppression of Smallpox,” p. 62, typescript in CPWL, vol. 6.

4
On public health administration in the southern United States, see Francis R. Allen, “Development of the Public Health Movement in the Southeast,”
Social Forces
, 22 (1943): 67–75. On the lack of administrative systems for tracking disease and vital statistics in the states, especially in the South, see
USSGPHMHS 1910
, 189;
USSGPHMHS 1911
, 241; U.S. Census Bureau,
A Discussion of the Vital Statistics of the Twelfth Census
, by Dr. John Shaw Billings (Washington, 1904), esp. 7–8; and Chapin, “Variation in Type,” 171–72.

5
“Warning Against Small-Pox,” Feb. 15, 1898,
KBOH 1898–99
, 22. See Chapin, “Variation in Type,” 173, 174; G. M. Magruder, “Work of the Service in Suppressing Smallpox in Alabama,”
PHR
, 13 (Mar. 18, 1898), 246–51;
KBOH 1900–01
, 17;
NCBOH 1903–04
, 13;
USSGPHMHS 1898
, 598–99.

6
Richard H. Lewis, “Annual Report of the Secretary of the North Carolina Board of Health, 1898–99,” in
NCBOH 1899–1900
, 23. See, e.g., C.P. Wertenbaker, “The Smallpox Outbreak in Bristol, Va.-Tenn.,”
PHR
, 14 (Nov.3, 1899), 1890; “Value of Vaccination,”
PHR
, 14 (Feb. 10, 1899), 180.

7
LBOH 1898–99
, 55, 129.
NOBOH 1900–01
, 23–24. “Guarding Public Health,”
AC
, Mar. 23, 1901, 3. As late as 1909, Surgeon General Wyman said no one could predict “whether” the mild type of smallpox would “change to the more usual fatal form.”
USSGPHMHS 1909
, 201.

8
Chapin, “Variation in Type,” 196. In 1932, Chapin and his coauthor Joseph Smith published another major scientific article on the subject; Chapin and Smith, “Permanency of the Mild Type,” esp. 319, emphasis added. The authors observed: “The statement should rather be, that it [mild type smallpox] has
for the most part
bred true, for it is not intended to prejudge the question whether it
ever
reverts to the classical type. That it does not revert is the belief of practically all American epidemiologists who have had experience with this disease.” Ibid., 276. See Fenner et al.,
Smallpox and Its Eradication
, 96.

9
Fenner et al.,
Smallpox and Its Eradication
, 3, 96–103, 329–32. K. R. Dumbell and Farida Huq, “The Virology of Variola Minor Correlation of Laboratory Tests with the Geographic Distribution and Human Virulence of Variola Isolates,”
American Journal of Epidemiology
, 123 (1986): 403–15.

10
Fenner et al.,
Smallpox and Its Eradication
, 3.

11
Chapin, “Variation in Type.” 171–96. Charles and Smith, “Permanency of the Mild Type.” Fenner et al.,
Smallpox and Its Eradication
, 3, 96–103, 329–32. J. Pickford Marsden, “Variola Minor: A Personal Analysis of 13,686 Cases,”
Bulletin of Hygiene
, 23 (1948): 735–46.

12
The phrase “creative destruction” comes, of course, from Joseph A. Schumpeter,
Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy
(New York: Harper and Brothers, 1942).

13
On the fascinating history of Middlesboro, see Harry M. Caudill,
Theirs Be the Power: The Moguls of Eastern Kentucky
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983), 16–35; John Gaventa,
Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1980); Kenneth W. Kuehn et al., eds.
Geologic Impacts on the History and Development of Middlesboro, Kentucky
(Lexington: Kentucky Society of Professional Geologists, 2003); Ann Dudley Matheny,
The Magic City: Footnotes to the History of Middlesborough, Kentucky, and the Yellow Creek Valley
(Middlesboro, KY: Bell County Historical Society, 2003).

14
Quoted in Gaventa,
Power and Powerlessness
, 47. See ibid., 47–83. On British investment in the United States, see Eric Rauchway,
Blessed Among Nations: How the World Made America
(New York: Hill and Wang, 2006), 42–52, esp. 48.

15
Katie Algeo, “Historical Overview: Settlement History of the Cumberland Gap Region,” in Kuehn et al., eds.,
Geologic Impacts
, 3–8.

16
55th U.S. Congress, 2d Session, H.R. Doc. 10,
Annual Report of the Comptroller of the Currency
(Washington, 1897), vol. I: 496–97. “Encouraging. Middlesborough Town and Lands Company Has a Meeting in London,”
MWH
, Dec. 3, 1897, 4. See Algeo, “Historical Overview,” 7–8; Gaventa,
Power and Powerlessness
, 76–78; Matheny,
Magic City
, xxii–xxiv, 102–21.

17
“Mingo,”
MWH
, Nov. 26, 1897, 1. “Furnaces,” ibid
.
, 4. Untitled editorial,
MWR
, Feb. 24, 1898, 4. See also “Encouraging,”
MWH
, Dec. 3, 1897, 4. On school enrollments, see “Report of Public School for November,” ibid., Dec. 3, 1897, 1.
USCB 1900
, Vol. I—Population, Part I (Washington, 1901), 618. U.S. Census Bureau,
Twelfth Census of the United States
(1900): Schedule No. 1—Population: Bell County, Kentucky, Middlesboro, Enumeration Districts 18 and 19. For a warmer portrait of race relations in Middlesboro, see Matheny,
Magic City
, 127–32.

18
U.S. Census Bureau,
Negroes in the United States
(Washington, 1904), 11, 13, 60. Herbert R. Northrup, “The Coal Mines,” in
Blacks in Appalachia
, ed. William H. Turner and Edward J. Cabbell (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1985), 159–71. On rural industry in the South, see Jacqueline Jones,
The Dispossessed: America's Underclasses from the Civil War to the Present
(New York: Basic Books, 1992), 127–66. On post–Civil War railroad development in Appalachia, see Robert L. Frey, “Railroads,” in
Encyclopedia of Appalachia
, ed. Rudy Abramson and Jean Haskell (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2006), 715–17.

19
G. M. Magruder, “Work of the Service in Suppressing Smallpox in Alabama,”
PHR
, 13 (Mar. 18, 1898), 246. “A Big Scare,”
MWR
, Nov. 18, 1897, 1. “Unwarranted,”
MWH
, Nov. 19, 1897, 4.

20
“A Big Scare,”
MWR
, Nov. 18, 1897, 1.

21
L. L. Robertson, “Bell County Board of Health,” in
KBOH 1900–01,
24–25. “Laws, Rules and Regulations,” in
KBOH 1898–99
, 177–78. “A Big Scare,”
MWR
, Nov. 18, 1897, 1. “Unwarranted,”
MWH
, Nov. 19, 1897, 4.

22
“Laws, Rules and Regulations,” in
KBOH 1898–99
, 173–80, 186.
Nelson County Court v. Town of Bardstown
, Superior Court of Kentucky (1885) in ibid., 173–76, esp. 176.

23
On the state board's vaccination estimates, see “The State Board of Health Urges All Kentucky Cities and Towns to Take Prompt Action,”
LMH
, Feb. 8, 1899, 4. For the Middlesboro estimate, see Matheny,
Magic City
, 226.

24
“Unwarranted,”
MWH
, Nov. 19, 1897, 4. Untitled editorial,
MWR
, Nov. 18, 1897, 4. See also “Smallpox,”
LMH
, Nov. 17, 1897, 1.

25
“Quarantine Raised,”
MWH
, Dec. 10, 1897, 4.

26
See “Quarantine Jottings,”
MWR
, Feb. 17, 1898, 2.

27
“Aunt Mariah ______,”
MWR
, Feb. 24, 1898, 2. Due to the poor quality of the microfilm, the last part of the headline is illegible.

28
“Chicken-Pox,”
MWR
, Nov. 26, 1897, 5. “Quarantine Raised,” ibid., Dec. 10, 1897, 4. “Smallpox,” ibid., Feb. 3, 1898, 3.
KBOH 1898–99
, 21.

29
Tazewell Progress
quoted in untitled editorial,
MWR
, Feb. 10, 1898, 4. “Smallpox,” ibid., Feb. 3, 1898, 3. See Matheny,
Magic City
, 228.

30
See “Laws, Rules and Regulations,” in
KBOH 1898–99
, 171–86.

31
Judge Charles Kerr, ed.,
History of Kentucky
(New York: American Historical Society, 1922), vol. 4: 450. John E. Kleber, ed.,
The Kentucky Encyclopedia
(Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1992), 592. The best sources on J. N. McCormack's ideas and work are the reports of the state board.

32
KBOH 1898–99
, 28.

33
J. N. McCormack viewed the quarantine power as “an indispensable weapon” against “counties and towns whose authorities failed or refused to adopt proper precautions against the disease.”
KBOH 1900–01
, 11. For an example of such a quarantine order (issued against Greenup County in December 1900), see ibid., 12. See also “Small-Pox Up-to-Date,”
MWR
, Feb. 17, 1898, 2.

34
“Small-Pox Victim Dies,”
LMH
, Feb. 13, 1898, 8. “Small-Pox Up-to-Date,”
MWR
, Feb. 17, 1898, 2. “Spreading,”
LMH
, Feb. 15, 1898, 8. On the Ball brothers, see Matheny,
Magic City
, 141–54.

35
“Smallpox in Middlesboro,”
WP
, Feb. 16, 1898, 9. “Small-Pox Up-to-Date,”
MWR
, Feb. 17, 1898, 2. “Uncle Sam Fumigating,” ibid., Feb. 24, 1898, 1. The advertisements appeared in ibid., Feb. 17, 1898, 1.

36
“Small-Pox: Situation More Grave,”
MWR
, Mar. 3, 1898, 6. “Laws, Rules and Regulations,” 177.

37
A. T. McCormack's brief report on the smallpox epidemic at Middlesboro appears in
KBOH 1898–99
, 47–48.

38
A. T. McCormack's report.

39
Short, untitled reports of postvaccination illnesses appear in the
MWR
, Dec. 9, 1897, 3; Feb. 24, 1898, 1; Mar. 10, 1898, 1–2.

40
Untitled editorial,
MWR
, Mar. 3, 1898, 4.
Plessy v. Ferguson
, 163 U.S. 537 ( 1896).

41
A. T. McCormack's report, 47. “Small-Pox: Situation More Grave,”
MWR
, Mar. 3, 1898, 6.

42
A. T. McCormack's report, 47–48. C. P. Wertenbaker, “Smallpox at Middlesborough, Ky.,”
PHR
, 13 (Mar. 25, 1898), 273–74.

43
KBOH 1898–99
, 48. Untitled Editorial,
MWR
, Mar. 10, 1898, 4.

44
Much of the correspondence arising from this episode is reprinted in
KBOH 1898–99
, 47–61. Fifty-fifth U.S. Congress,
Congressional Directory
( Washington, 1897), 52. For an excellent history of federal disaster relief, see Michele Landis Dauber, “The Sympathetic State,”
Law and History Review
, 23 (2005): 387–442.

45
KBOH 1898–99
, 48–49. The emphasis in Colson's quotation is mine.

46
Walter Wyman to C. P. Wertenbaker, Mar 10, 1898, CPWL, vol. 1.

47
I have formed my impressions of Wertenbaker by reading his personal papers and letter books (collected at the Library of the University of Virginia) and his published dispatches and reports. For an overview of his career, see “Death, Here, of Noted Surgeon,”
Daily Progress
(Charlottesville, VA), July 13, 1916, 1.

48
Wertenbaker, “Smallpox at Middlesborough,” 273.

49
Ibid., 274. “Death of Dr. A. T. McCormack” (U.S. Children's Bureau),
The Child
, 8 (1943), 47.

50
Wertenbaker, “Smallpox at Middlesborough,” 273–74. “Investigating,”
LMH
, Mar. 15, 1898, 3. “Spreading,” ibid., Mar. 15, 1898, 8. “The Smallpox Situation at Middlesboro,”
Grand Forks Herald
(North Dakota), Mar. 15, 1898, 8. See also C. P. Wertenbaker, “One Case of Smallpox in Wilmington, N.C.,”
PHR
, 13 (Jan. 14, 1898), 25; C. P. Wertenbaker, “Investigation of Smallpox at Charlotte, N.C.,”
PHR
, 13 (Feb. 18, 1898), 140–41.1.

51
Untitled editorial,
MWR
, Mar. 10, 1898, 4. “Smallpox Situation at Middlesboro.” “Starving in a Pesthouse,”
NYT
, Mar. 15, 1898, 3. “Seventy Cases of Smallpox,”
AC
, Mar. 16, 1898, 5. Wertenbaker, “Smallpox at Middlesborough,” 274.

52
“Uncle Sam to the Rescue,”
MWR
, Mar. 17, 1898, 3.
KBOH, 1898–9
, 49.

53
A. T. McCormack's report, 47.

54
Ibid., 49–50.