The history of small-pox in Australia, 1788-1908 / compiled from various sources by J.H.L. Cumpston.

  • Cumpston, J. H. L. (John Howard Lidgett), 1880-1954.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history of small-pox in Australia, 1788-1908 / compiled from various sources by J.H.L. Cumpston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    extensive outbreak of small-pox is usually preceded by scattered cases, twelve months is an unduly long interval for this phenomenon. The occurrence of small-pox on the First Fleet during its outward voyage, which is suggested by Tench's remarks, is not at all probable. No other printed account of the voyage makes any reference to it. Phillip, in a letter to Lord Sydney (1790), states definitely that it never appeared during the voyage out (see p. 147), and the present writer has had the opportunity of perusing an unpublished diary of the voyage, kept apparently by a sub- ordinate officer, in which no reference whatever is made to any case of small- pox, though minute details of other cases of sickness are recorded.* King refers to it as follows, This dreadful distemper, which, there is no doubt, is a distemper natural to the country ...., and thus obviously adopts the view that the origin need not be sought amongst circumstances connected with the arrival of either the English or the French. The hypothesis that the French Fleet was responsible has some, support in a statement made in 1801 by Dr. Jamison in his report quoted elsewhere. He says :—'• It is generally accredited by the medical gentlemen of the colony on its first establishment that the small-pox had been introduced among the natives by the crews of the French ships then lying in Botany Bay. There remains the remark of Tench that our surgeons had brought out variolous matter in bottles. This variolous matter cannot be dismissed lightly as a possible source of the epidemic. It is at least as likely a theory as that of the introduction by the French sailors. But this question can never be settled unless some hitherto undiscovered records come to light. It does not appear that the evidence advanced by Cleland in favour of his hypothesis is very convincing, and pending the discovery of more satis- factory information, the safest course would seem to be to follow the generally accepted theory that the introduction of the disease amongst the aborigines was in some way associated with the arrival in Australia of a comparatively large number of Europeans. Evidences of the outbreak in 1789 have been found in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, but the epidemic appears to have subsided, or at any rate been latent enough to escape remark, until 1829 or 1830. There are several authoritative references to an epidemic about those years, which was recorded more especially from the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee districts, but in all probability also extended into Victoria and along the Murray as far as South Australia. Tidswell states that it persisted in Victoria until 1815. The information available with regard to this second occurrence is meagre enough. Whether it was a recrudescence of the original epidemic, or whether it was a re-introduction cannot at present be determined ; that it was actually small-pox is rendered almost certain by the account quoted in the New South Wales Medical Gazette, 1874-5, p. 26, in which Dr. Busby gives an account of the disease which was, about the year 1830, '' raging among the black natives of the Bathurst District, and the discussion therein contained of the cause of the disease. This account and another by Dr. Bennett are quoted as appendices. Flanagan gives another reference .* This diary is in the possession of Mr W. Dixson, of Sydney, to whose courtesy I am indebted for the opportunity of obtaining this information.