1924 — Smallpox, international list #6, Census Bureau. Mortality Statistics 1924     —   874

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 4-5-2025 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

–2,441  US Bureau of the Census. Mortality Statistics 1924. Table II. 1927, p. 114.

California       (  56)

— 56  State. Dickie.[1] Weekly Bulletin, CA State Board of Health. V4, N34, 10-3-1925, p. 134.

— 19  State, by Aug end. CA State Board of Health, Weekly Bulletin, III/30, 9-6-1924, p. 119.[2]

— 25  Fresno, Sep-Dec.  Dickie. Weekly Bulletin, CA Health Board. IV/34, 10-3-1925, p. 134.

— 12  Fresno, by Oct 25. CA State Board of Health, Weekly Bulletin, III/37, 10-25-1925, p. 147.[3]

—   2  Los Angeles, April. CA State Board of Health, Weekly Bulletin, III/19, 6-21-1924, p. 2.[4]

—   4  San Bernardino Co., April. CA Board of Health, Weekly Bulletin, III/19, 6-21-1924, p. 2.

Michigan        (  13)

— 13  Detroit, April. CA State Board of Health Weekly Report, III/13, 5-10-1924, p. 2.

Minnesota      (298)

— 298  State, the year. CA Health Board. “Minnesota Fights Smallpox Successfully.” 4-4-1925.[5]

— 149  Dec, CA State Board of Health. “Minnesota Fights Smallpox Successfully.” 4-4-1925.

— 109  Minneapolis, Dec 14-20. CA Health Board. “Minnesota Fights Smallpox Successfully.”

Narrative Information

 California

Dickie: “The past two years have brought to California several sharp, spectacular epidemics of exceptionally serious import. These years, in fact, may well be described by that unfortunate term ‘epidemic years.’ Extensive outbreaks of typhoid fever, virulent smallpox, plague and poliomyelitis, have taxed the resources of health departments and have required the full attributes of trained workers in public health. Had these epidemics occurred before the development of modern health departments, it is probable that they would have resulted far more disastrously….

 

“Beginning in September 1924, Fresno experienced a disastrous outbreak of virulent smallpox, followed a few months later by a similar outbreak in San Francisco. In Fresno the number of cases increased quite regularly until the week ending October 27th, when a maximum of 44 cases for the week was attained. The outbreak ended at the beginning of December. During this period there were 25 deaths from smallpox in Fresno and vicinity, out of a total of 170 cases. This represents the highest fatality rate for this disease that has yet been recorded in California. For the whole State in 1924 there were 56 deaths and 9,449 cases. That we still have a problem in smallpox control is indicated by the figures for the present year. To September 1st [1925] 4,243 cases of smallpox with 34 deaths have been reported in California….” (Dickie. “A Review…” Weekly Bulletin, CA State Board of Health. Vol. IV, No. 34, 10-3-1925, pp. 133-134.)

 

Detroit, Michigan

 

CA State Board of Health, May 10: “An exceptionally large number of cases of smallpox has been reported in Detroit since the first of the year and while most of these cases are mild, a considerable number of cases of an exceptionally virulent type of smallpox is now appearing. There were 13 deaths from smallpox in Detroit during April. Smallpox is also unusually prevalent in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit.” (Weekly Report, III/13, 5-10-1924, p. 2.)

 

CA State Board of Health Weekly Bulletin, June 21: “According to news dispatches, the Detroit health department has established a quarantine area covering fifteen city blocks, because of the unprecedented smallpox situation existing in that city. No one is allowed to enter or leave the quarantine area unless he has been successfully vaccinated. Street cars are permitted to pass through the district but are not allowed to make any stops.” (“Detroit Quarantines Portion of City,” Weekly Report, Vol. III, No. 19, 6-21-1924, p. 75.)

 

CA State Board of Health Weekly Bulletin, Aug 23: “Surgeon General Cumming of the United States Public Health Service has issued a warning concerning the increased prevalence of smallpox throughout the United States. He says:

 

‘The neglect of vaccination in many districts of certain sections of the United States has led to a recrudescence of smallpox with the corresponding suffering experienced by its victims and a wholly unnecessary sacrifice of human lives in the years 1922 and 1923, amounting to 967 known deaths from smallpox, and possibly a number of others which were not reported.

 

‘During the first six months of 1924 an additional toll of at least 200 human lives has been taken, every one of which deaths could have been prevented by vaccination and revaccination.

 

‘The increasing number of cases of smallpox, the continued spread of this disease from city to city, and from state to state, will, if not checked, not only augment the number of victims, but may bring about a condition which will seriously interfere with the movements of passengers on trains, steamers, automobiles, and other carriers. It is conceivable that this interference might be of a degree that would involve the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in quarantine, a contingency which might easily be avoided provided our people can be induced to protect themselves by vaccination and revaccination.

 

‘The Public Health Service is being importuned at the present time to exercise its authority in enforcing interstate quarantine to prevent the migration of the unvaccinated when there is danger that these may have been exposed to smallpox.

 

‘It is particularly desirable that the Federal Government may not be forced to interfere in interstate travel, and it is earnestly hoped that the authorities of all states, counties, municipalities, or other units of governments will immediately begin campaigns to secure the vaccination or revaccination of all persons who have not been recently successfully vaccinated, particularly in those states where smallpox is prevalent.

 

‘….there are a large number of persons who are otherwise good citizens, who, because of indifference, carelessness, and lack of information, and oftentimes because of having been deceived by false propaganda and deliberate misinformation either fail or refuse to protect themselves and their trusting but helpless children until it is too late. These same children of misinformed or irresponsible parents, being too young to judge for themselves, are entitled to the protection of the state, and certainly the state is derelict in its duties if it allows such unprotected children to be exposed to smallpox.’” (Vol. III, No. 28, 8-23-1924, p. 111.)

 

Narrative Information

(General)

 

Crosby: “Smallpox is a disease with seven-league boots. Its effects are terrifying; the fever and the pain; the swift appearance of pustules that sometimes destroy the skin and transform the victim into a gory horror; the astounding death rates, up to one-fourth, one-half, or more with the worst strains. The healthy flee, leaving the ill behind to face certain death, and often taking the disease along with them. The incubation period for smallpox is ten to fourteen days, long enough for the ephemerally healthy carrier to flee for long distances on foot, by canoe, or, later, on horseback to people who know nothing of the threat he represents, and there to infect them and inspire others newly charged with the virus to flee to infect new innocents….” (Crosby, Alfred W.  “Virgin Soil Epidemics,” in Warren, American Environmental History, 2003, 53-54.)

 

Lamb: “Between 1600 and 1775, smallpox was both universal and fatal in Europe and North America; it was a major cause of death in colonial America (Duffy 1953[6]).  Smallpox is a highly communicable viral disease that causes 3 to 4 days of high fever and rapid pulse with intense headache and back pain, followed by skin eruptions that eventually develop into pustules.  Once infected, the person either dies or survives with an extended period of immunity.  The virus typically is passed from host to host, but it can also remain infectious for months on inanimate objects, including bedding and clothing.” (Lamb. “Historical and Epidemiological Trends in Mortality in the United States,” 2003. 185.)

 

MN Health Board: “`The origin of this destructive disease is involved in obscurity. It is said to have been mentioned in very ancient Chinese manuscripts, and in Brahmin records 3366 years old.’ We have positive record of its occurrence in the last quarter of the 6th century. It soon became, throughout the known world, a naturalized plague. In the 18th century it was the cause of mortality in 1 in 12 of all deaths. Among those attacked by the disease 20 per cent died. In the confluent form it killed one-half. It is altogether probable that no other pestilence, including the other plagues of the middle ages, has ever been so fatal to man as small pox. The annual mortality in Europe alone from this disease was very nearly 500,000. This was due to the fact that unlike other pestilential diseases ‘it was universally prevalent, among all races of men; among all ranks of society; in both sexes, at all ages and in all seasons; it made itself at home everywhere; attacked a large proportion of the population; and caused a very large proportion of deaths.’ Evidence of its secondary influence is found in the fact that from one-half to two-thirds of the blind in England before the 19th century owed the loss of sight to the small pox.

 

“Two methods of preventing the great mortality of this disease have been thoroughly tried: inoculation and vaccination. Inoculation was the first experiment. ‘There is no doubt that it was practiced by the Brahmin’s of Hindostan from a very remote period; and the Chinese have long ‘sown’ the small-pox by inserting a crust into the nose. In 1717 the wife of the English Ambassador to the Turks, had her son inoculated there, and in 1722 her daughter of the same age was inoculated in England. It was then tried on six condemned criminals; then on five paupers; then on children of aristocratic families, and lastly upon the English royal family, after which it became general. One advantage of inoculation was the assured mortality of the disease, 1 in 50 as against 1 in 5 from the natural diseases. In 1721, in New England, the natural disease killed 1 in 7; inoculation 1 in 51; in North Carolina the proportion was 1 in 5 to 1 in 100.

 

“The misfortune was that small pox by inoculation was as contagious as the natural disease and so became a cause of its universal spread. Still it is probable that good resulted from the practice in the absence of anything better. 

 

“The discovery of vaccination was in this way: Edward Jenner was apprenticed to a surgeon near Bristol, England, in a country where cow pox prevailed. One day a young woman came into his master’s surgery and speaking of small pox and its dangers, said: ‘I cannot take the disease for I have had the cow pox.’ The remark impressed itself in Jenner’s mind, he spoke of it to his fellow students, to the great Dr. John Hunter, his preceptor, and after beginning practice for himself talked of it so much in his medical club that his fellow practitioners threatened to vote him a bore. He made his first experiments in 1795, published the result in 1798, lived to see the triumph of vaccination, and died in 1823, aged 74 years.

 

“The vaccine virus is a matter found in pustules on the udder and teats of the milch cow. This local disease is the small pox modified by passing through the body of the cow. The operation of vaccination consists in the insertion of this matter (direct from the cow or that has passed through the human body) into the human system by punctures in the skin. It gives rise to a local inflammation and the formation of a little pustule. The appearance of this pustule on the seventy day after the operation was stated, by Dr. Jenner himself, to a lady who asked, to be ‘that of the section of a pearl on a rose leaf.’ The description is as accurate as could be given.

 

“It is proven by long trial that vaccination is ‘a preventive of the natural small pox in the great majority of cases, and that when it does not prevent an attack it mitigates its severity more certainly than a previous attack of small pox itself does.’

 

“Jenner lived long enough to witness the complete vindication of his claims, and now small pox is by his simple discovery almost completely under human control. The objections to vaccination at present are directed chiefly against the use of humanized virus (that which has passed through a number of human bodies.) It is claimed that in this way other and dangerous diseases have been communicated….”  (p. 61-62)

Sources

 

Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce. Mortality Statistics 1924. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1927. Accessed 4-1-2025 at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsushistorical/mortstatsh_1924.pdf

 

California State Board of Health. “Detroit Quarantines Portion of City,” Weekly Report, Vol. III, No. 19, 6-21-1924, p. 75. Google digitized. Accessed 9-20-2016 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=7ow9AQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

 

California State Board of Health. “Fresno Smallpox Situation Improved.” Weekly Report, Vol. III, No. 38, 11-1-1924, p. 149. Google digitized. Accessed 9-20-2016 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=7ow9AQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

 

California State Board of Health. “Minnesota Fights Smallpox Successfully.” Weekly Bulletin, Vol. IV, No. 8, 4-4-1925, p. 31. Google digitized. Accessed 9-20-2016 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=7ow9AQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

 

California State Board of Health. “Severe Type of Smallpox Appears in California,” Weekly Bulletin, Vol. III, No. 37, 10-25-1925, p. 147. Google digitized. Accessed 9-20-2016 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=7ow9AQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

 

California State Board of Health. “Six Smallpox Deaths in April,” Weekly Bulletin, Vol. III, No. 19, 6-21-1924, p. 2. Google digitized. Accessed 9-20-2016 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=7ow9AQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

 

California State Board of Health. “Smallpox and Vaccination.” Weekly Bulletin, Vol. III, No. 30, 9-6-1924, p. 119. Google digitized. Accessed 9-20-2016 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=7ow9AQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

 

California State Board of Health. “Smallpox of Severe Type in Detroit,” Weekly Bulletin, Vol. III, No. 13, 5-10-1924, p. 2. Google digitized. Accessed 9-20-2016 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=7ow9AQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

 

California State Board of Health. “Surgeon General Issues Smallpox Warning.” Weekly Bulletin, Vol. III, No. 28, 8-23-1924, p. 111. Google digitized. Accessed 9-20-2016 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=7ow9AQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

 

Crosby, Alfred W.  “Virgin Soil Epidemics,” in Warren, American Environmental History, 2003, pp. 53-54.

 

Dickie, Walter M. (M.D.). “A Review of Communicable Disease Control in 1924-1925.” Weekly Bulletin, CA State Board of Health. Vol. IV, No. 34, 10-3-1925, pp. 133-136. Google digitized. Accessed 9-15-2016 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=7ow9AQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

 

Lamb, Vicki L. “Historical and Epidemiological Trends in Mortality in the United States.” Pp. 185-197 in Bryant, Clifton D. (Ed.). Handbook of Death & Dying. Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage Publications, 2003. Google preview accessed 3-12-2018 at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=3z9EpgisKOgC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=true

 

Secretary, Minnesota State Board of Health. Appendix “F” “Small Pox. Its History and the Means Used For Its Prevention,” pp. 59-63 in Fifth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Minnesota, January, 1876. Saint Paul: The Pioneer Press Co., 1877. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=10VNAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

 

[1] Dr. Walter M. Dickie. Secretary and Executive Officer, California State Board of Health.

[2] “….Since the first of the present year nearly 8,000 cases of the disease have been reported in this state. Nineteen of these cases resulted in death. At least three cases of blindness, caused by the disease, have been reported in California this year….”

[3] “At least a dozen deaths from this disease, according to newspaper reports, have occurred recently in Fresno.” (“Severe Type of Smallpox Appears in California.”) In next issue (Nov 1), “The smallpox outbreak in Fresno County is characterized not by the large number of mild cases reported, but rather by the small number of severe cases reported and the high mortality rate. In one family there were four cases reported, three of which have resulted fatally, with the probability that the fourth case will also result in death. Out of a total of 86 cases reported during the past six weeks there have been at least 12 deaths.”

[4] Of the six LA County and San Bernardino County deaths, “Two of these…were in four-year-old children and one aged nine years. The others were eighteen, nineteen and forty-eight years of age…There were 1746 cases of smallpox reported in California during the month of April.”

[5] “In December, 1924, there were 473 cases of smallpox in Minnesota, with 149 deaths. In the city of Minneapolis during the week ending December 20 there were 356 cases with 109 deaths — a fatality rate of 30.6 per cent. In Minnesota during the year 1924 there were 1345 cases of smallpox reported with 298 deaths. The disease did not abate with the beginning of the new year, for there were 346 cases and 99 deaths during January. Later reports, however, indicate that the outbreak has diminished greatly. The epidemic of the malignant form of the disease was most severe in St. Paul and Minneapolis, and in these cities rigid control measures were introduced.” (Weekly Bulletin, Vol. IV, No. 8, 4-4-1925, p. 31.)

[6] Duffy, John.  1953.  Epidemics in Colonial America.  Baton Rouge:  Louisiana State University Press.