Surgeons, Smallpox, and the Poor

Surgeons, Smallpox, and the Poor PDF Author: Allan Everett Marble
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773563857
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 373

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Book Description
Beginning with an account of the settlement of Halifax, Marble documents the care taken by the Lords of Trade and Plantations to provide proper food and health care during the settlers' passage across the Atlantic in May and June of 1749. He chronicles the rendezvous of regiments and ships in Halifax between 1755 and 1763, examining the two smallpox epidemics which followed their arrival. He deals with the treatment of the poor in Nova Scotia between the Seven Years War and the American Revolution, showing that many in this group were camp followers who had been abandoned by regiments that had left Halifax. Financial resources previously directed towards providing medical services for citizens had to be redirected to feed, clothe, and shelter such individuals. A third smallpox epidemic struck Nova Scotia in 1775-76 and, as Marble demonstrates, prevented the Americans from attacking Halifax. He examines the initial unsuccessful attempt to regulate the practice of medicine in Nova Scotia and explores the reasons the region lagged behind Lower Canada and the American colonies in this regard. Marble covers all aspects of health care, including hospitals, the training and practices of physicians and surgeons, the use of patent medicines, and the various types of medical and surgical treatments. As well, he has made a thorough study of individual patients through their wills, diaries, and personal letters.

Surgeons, Smallpox, and the Poor

Surgeons, Smallpox, and the Poor PDF Author: Allan Everett Marble
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773563857
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 373

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Book Description
Beginning with an account of the settlement of Halifax, Marble documents the care taken by the Lords of Trade and Plantations to provide proper food and health care during the settlers' passage across the Atlantic in May and June of 1749. He chronicles the rendezvous of regiments and ships in Halifax between 1755 and 1763, examining the two smallpox epidemics which followed their arrival. He deals with the treatment of the poor in Nova Scotia between the Seven Years War and the American Revolution, showing that many in this group were camp followers who had been abandoned by regiments that had left Halifax. Financial resources previously directed towards providing medical services for citizens had to be redirected to feed, clothe, and shelter such individuals. A third smallpox epidemic struck Nova Scotia in 1775-76 and, as Marble demonstrates, prevented the Americans from attacking Halifax. He examines the initial unsuccessful attempt to regulate the practice of medicine in Nova Scotia and explores the reasons the region lagged behind Lower Canada and the American colonies in this regard. Marble covers all aspects of health care, including hospitals, the training and practices of physicians and surgeons, the use of patent medicines, and the various types of medical and surgical treatments. As well, he has made a thorough study of individual patients through their wills, diaries, and personal letters.

The War Against Smallpox

The War Against Smallpox PDF Author: Michael Bennett
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521765676
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 437

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Book Description
A history of the global spread of vaccination during the Napoleonic Wars, when millions of children were saved from smallpox.

Pox Americana

Pox Americana PDF Author: Elizabeth A. Fenn
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780809078219
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
A horrifying epidemic of smallpox was sweeping across the Americas when the War of Independence began, and yet little is known about it. Fenn reveals how deeply "variola" affected the outcome of the war in every colony and the lives of everyone in North America. Illustrations.

Smallpox in Washington's Army

Smallpox in Washington's Army PDF Author: Ann M. Becker
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793630704
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
In Smallpox in Washington's Army: Disease, War and Society during the Revolutionary War , the author argues that smallpox played an integral role in military affairs for both the British and Continental armies, and impacted soldiers and civilians throughout the War for American Independence. Due to the Royal army’s policy of troop inoculation and because many British soldiers were already immune to the variola virus, the American army was initially at a disadvantage. Most American colonists were highly susceptible to this dreaded disease, and its presence was greatly feared. General George Washington was keenly aware of this disadvantage and, despite his own doubts, embarked on a policy of inoculation to protect his troops. Use of this controversial, innovative, and effective medical procedure leveled the playing field within the armies. However, by 1777, smallpox spread throughout America as soldiers interacted with civilian populations. Once military action moved south, American and British auxiliary troops and the enslaved Southern population all succumbed to the disease, creating a disorderly, dangerous situation as the war ends. Washington’s implementation of isolation policies as well as mass troop inoculation removed the threat of epidemic smallpox and ultimately protected American soldiers and civilians from the dangers of this much feared disease.

Angel of Death

Angel of Death PDF Author: G. Williams
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230293190
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 453

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Book Description
The story of the rise and fall of smallpox, one of the most savage killers in the history of mankind, and the only disease ever to be successfully exterminated (30 years ago next year) by a public health campaign.

Pox

Pox PDF Author: Michael Willrich
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101476222
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 511

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Book Description
The untold story of how America's Progressive-era war on smallpox sparked one of the great civil liberties battles of the twentieth century. At the turn of the last century, a powerful smallpox epidemic swept the United States from coast to coast. The age-old disease spread swiftly through an increasingly interconnected American landscape: from southern tobacco plantations to the dense immigrant neighborhoods of northern cities to far-flung villages on the edges of the nascent American empire. In Pox, award-winning historian Michael Willrich offers a gripping chronicle of how the nation's continentwide fight against smallpox launched one of the most important civil liberties struggles of the twentieth century. At the dawn of the activist Progressive era and during a moment of great optimism about modern medicine, the government responded to the deadly epidemic by calling for universal compulsory vaccination. To enforce the law, public health authorities relied on quarantines, pesthouses, and "virus squads"-corps of doctors and club-wielding police. Though these measures eventually contained the disease, they also sparked a wave of popular resistance among Americans who perceived them as a threat to their health and to their rights. At the time, anti-vaccinationists were often dismissed as misguided cranks, but Willrich argues that they belonged to a wider legacy of American dissent that attended the rise of an increasingly powerful government. While a well-organized anti-vaccination movement sprang up during these years, many Americans resisted in subtler ways-by concealing sick family members or forging immunization certificates. Pox introduces us to memorable characters on both sides of the debate, from Henning Jacobson, a Swedish Lutheran minister whose battle against vaccination went all the way to the Supreme Court, to C. P. Wertenbaker, a federal surgeon who saw himself as a medical missionary combating a deadly-and preventable-disease. As Willrich suggests, many of the questions first raised by the Progressive-era antivaccination movement are still with us: How far should the government go to protect us from peril? What happens when the interests of public health collide with religious beliefs and personal conscience? In Pox, Willrich delivers a riveting tale about the clash of modern medicine, civil liberties, and government power at the turn of the last century that resonates powerfully today.

At the Ocean's Edge

At the Ocean's Edge PDF Author: Margaret Conrad
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1487532695
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
At the Ocean’s Edge offers a vibrant account of Nova Scotia’s colonial history, situating it in an early and dramatic chapter in the expansion of Europe. Between 1450 and 1850, various processes – sometimes violent, often judicial, rarely conclusive – transferred power first from Indigenous societies to the French and British empires, and then to European settlers and their descendants who claimed the land as their own. This book not only brings Nova Scotia’s struggles into sharp focus but also unpacks the intellectual and social values that took root in the region. By the time that Nova Scotia became a province of the Dominion of Canada in 1867, its multicultural peoples, including Mi’kmaq, Acadian, African, and British, had come to a grudging, unequal, and often contested accommodation among themselves. Written in accessible and spirited prose, the narrative follows larger trends through the experiences of colourful individuals who grappled with expulsion, genocide, and war to establish the institutions, relationships, and values that still shape Nova Scotia’s identity.

The Power of Plagues

The Power of Plagues PDF Author: Irwin W. Sherman
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1683670019
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 505

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Book Description
The Power of Plagues presents a rogues' gallery of epidemic- causing microorganisms placed in the context of world history. Author Irwin W. Sherman introduces the microbes that caused these epidemics and the people who sought (and still seek) to understand how diseases and epidemics are managed. What makes this book especially fascinating are the many threads that Sherman weaves together as he explains how plagues past and present have shaped the outcome of wars and altered the course of medicine, religion, education, feudalism, and science. Cholera gave birth to the field of epidemiology. The bubonic plague epidemic that began in 1346 led to the formation of universities in cities far from the major centers of learning (and hot spots of the Black Death) at that time. And the Anopheles mosquito and malaria aided General George Washington during the American Revolution. Sadly, when microbes have inflicted death and suffering, people have sometimes responded by invoking discrimination, scapegoating, and quarantine, often unfairly, against races or classes of people presumed to be the cause of the epidemic. Pathogens are not the only stars of this book. Many scientists and physicians who toiled to understand, treat, and prevent these plagues are also featured. Sherman tells engaging tales of the development of vaccines, anesthesia, antiseptics, and antibiotics. This arsenal has dramatically reduced the suffering and death caused by infectious diseases, but these plague protectors are imperfect, due to their side effects or attenuation and because microbes almost invariably develop resistance to antimicrobial drugs. The Power of Plagues provides a sobering reminder that plagues are not a thing of the past. Along with the persistence of tuberculosis, malaria, river blindness, and AIDS, emerging and remerging epidemics continue to confound global and national public health efforts. West Nile virus, Lyme disease, and Ebola and Zika viruses are just some of the newest rogues to plague humans. The argument that civilization has been shaped to a significant degree by the power of plagues is compelling, and The Power of Plagues makes the case in an engaging and informative way that will be satisfying to scientists and non-scientists alike.

The Speckled Monster

The Speckled Monster PDF Author: Jennifer Lee Carrell
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 144062335X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 506

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Book Description
The Speckled Monster tells the dramatic story of two parents who dared to fight back against smallpox. After barely surviving the agony of smallpox themselves, they flouted eighteenth-century medicine by borrowing folk knowledge from African slaves and Eastern women in frantic bids to protect their children. From their heroic struggles stems the modern science of immunology as well as the vaccinations that remain our only hope should the disease ever be unleashed again. Jennifer Lee Carrell transports readers back to the early eighteenth century to tell the tales of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, two iconoclastic figures who helped save London and Boston from the deadliest disease mankind has known.

From Empire to Humanity

From Empire to Humanity PDF Author: Amanda B. Moniz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190240350
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
From Empire to Humanity explores the shift from an imperial to a universal approach to humanitarianism as American and British compatriots adjusted to becoming foreigners to each other after the American Revolution.