"Small Pox"

The British Colonist, March 19, 1862

For three or four days past rumours have prevailed in town to the effect that the small pox had broken out, and that several cases of the worst type were already under treatment. We have made diligent inquiry, and yesterday learned sufficient to justify us in announcing that one case of varioloid really exists here. The patient came from San Francisco on the last steamer, and was attacked by the loathsome disease either just before reaching this port or soon after landing. The case is not considered a dangerous one by the attending physicians, although a consultation was held yesterday to determine its character. While on this subject it may not be improper if we state that from private sources we learn that the small pox is very prevalent at San Francisco, and that the public prints, from some unknown cause, forbear to mention the fact; nor [one line illegible] information reaches us from three different sources, any one of which we deem reliable. As our city is now in almost weekly communication with the Bay City, the danger of contagion from that quarter is necessarily very great, and we therefore hope that we shall not be regarded as alarmists when we advise our citizens — and more especially those who design proceeding to the mines, where proper medical treatment and good nursing are not to be obtained at any price — to proceed at once to a physician and undergo vaccination. The cost is but a trifle when compared with the perfect immunity from the loathsome disease which those who may take this precaution will enjoy. The varioloid patient alluded to above is roomed, we understand, in a thickly populated neighborhood, and in a house where several other persons reside. He is well looked after and cared for; but from sanitary motives we would recommend his immediate removal, if possible, to comfortable quarters in the suburbs of the town.