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epidemics in Iceland taking place as early as 1241, as we go
further back the evidence as to the existence of the disease
becomes less and less clear, and indeed debateable, depending as
it does largely on the interpretation of incidental statements
in various medical and other writings. There seems, however,
to be adequate proof of the prevalence of Small.Pox in the East,
in Asia Minor and other countries, even in the earlier centuries of
the Christian era.
A view very generally taken teaches that Small.Pox
introduced from the east, began to be common in western Europe
during the fifteenth century, though perhaps existing still earlier,
that it increased during the sixteenth and seventeenth centures,
especially the latter, and that it was very prevalent during the
eighteenth century. It will be desirable not to discuss this view
at length, but to confine our attention to the history of the
disease in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Quite apart from all calculations, the Bills clearly show that
from 1629 onwards, throughout the remainder of that century and
the whole of the next, very many persons died in London from
Small.Pox. During the latter half of the seventeenth century
the yearly deaths fell below 500 on eight occasions only. The
return of one year, 1666, conspicuous for the smallness of the
number of deaths (38 only) is intelligible when it is remembered
that this is the year succeeding that of the Great Plague. The
Bills also show that in both centuries the disease had an epidemic
character, the returns of certain years being much greater than
those of others. In many instances the epidemic increase
is marked in one year only, the returns of the succeeding
year being, as a rule, low, but not unfrequently the epidemic
lasted over two or more years; and this appears to have occurred
more frequently in the eighteenth than in the seventeenth century.
Indeed, the variations of the numbers are, as a rule, more abrupt
in the latter than in the former period.
When we turn to the important question of the mortality