2                            THE STAMPING OUT OF

of stamping out could be as successfully applied to the extirpation of
small-pox among us as it has been applied to the extirpation of
rinderpest; but of course with great differences. The rinderpest has
been stamped out by killing all the animals laboring under the
disease; and in many instances all those animals of the same flock
which had been exposed to the contagion of it, but which were not
yet attacked by the malady. The mission, however, of the human
physician is ever to save life, never to destroy it."

"And yet in accordance with this leading and divine principle, we
could, in my opinion, as surely and as swiftly stamp out small-pox
as rinderpest has been stamped out. For all that appears necessary
for the purpose is simply the methodic temporary seclusion, segrega-
tion, or quarantine, of those affected with small-pox, until they have
completely passed through the disease and lost the power of infecting
and injuring others; the poleaxe was the chief and leading measure
required to stamp out rinderpest. ISOLATION is the chief and leading
measure required to stamp out small-pox."

Mortality from
small-pox in
Calcutta

2. In a special report on the Presidency vaccine establishment
I laid before the Bengal Government in 1865 a table of the deaths
from small-pox which had taken place in Calcutta since the year 1832.
From this it can be seen that small-pox exists in Calcutta every year,
and that in the thirty-four years included in the table it had assumed
epidemic proportions on seven occasions. On each of these occasions
the loss of life has been so terrific as to make one shrink from dwell-
ing on it. The figures have already been published in the Calcutta
Gazette of the 17th January 1866. This figured statement seems
to have attracted but little attention. It is difficult to appreciate
the full significance of abstract figures; perhaps with the aid of
illustration I may be more fortunate in drawing public attention to
the subject. To exemplify in what degree a small-pox epidemic
means death, let me take as an extreme instance what occurred in
the last small-pox epidemic.

During February
and March 1865,
exceeded that in
England for a
year.

3. In the months of February and March 1865, 2,957 people
died of small-pox in the town of Calcutta,—in other words, close
on 3,000 persons perished in these two months. In these two solitary
months more people died of small-pox in this one city, than usually
die of this disease in every city, town, village, and hamlet in the
whole of England during a year.