March 18, 1849
Dear Reader,
It's been 2 weeks since Old Rough and Ready was sworn in as president. Imagine - Zachary Taylor, 12th President of
the United States. Word is that he is as
surprised by his situation as most of the voters.
We did not have
much time here at home to take notice of the hoopla in Washington; father has
been sick for the better part of two weeks with the cow pox. Most of the farmers who get the pox just have
a blister or two where they had a scratch infected by an ulcer on a cow's teat.
But father developed a rash over his back, chest and arms that was very nasty
looking. He also ran a fever and had a
great deal of bone pain.
Mother called
the doctor as soon as she saw the first blisters. He came quickly and relieved everyone that
what father had was indeed cowpox and not small pox.
Over the years,
Mother has been reading about the pox.
She has been convinced by her reading that cowpox really does give
protection against smallpox. She asked
the doctor about the chances of giving herself, her children (myself included)
and the grandchildren a case of cowpox from father's blisters. But on seeing how sick Father had became, her
enthusiasm was tempered. That was a
relief!
Mother talked
with the doctor about the other method of protection, called variolation. It involves scraping some dried-up scabs of
real smallpox infections into a scratch on the back of the hand giving that
person a mild case of smallpox from which the vast majority survive. The method has been used for over a hundred
years in the colonies with good success.
In fact General Washington used it to protect his troops 70 years
ago. He was convinced the method was
needed as he feared he would lose more soldiers from the pox than from the
British.
The fact that
"most" - not "all" survived this method dampened Mother's
zeal. We reminded her that there hasn't
been an outbreak of smallpox west of Boston in 30 years. She seemed content. Perhaps we're safe from Mother's tender
mercies as well as the disease.
Father is
making a full recovery and should be back in the milking barn in the next few
days.
Continuing in
good health, I remain
Your
correspondent,
Chauncey Sherman Seckner
