Appearance among the natives of a disease resembling the
small-pox—Origin and progress of that malady among the
aborigines—Medical investigations—Plan of treatment—Variety
of forms assumed by the disease—Its duration—The critical
period—Dr. Mair’s report.
About two years previous an eruptive febrile disease made its appearance
among the natives of Wellington Valley, resembling the small-pox in its
principal characters. Some alarm was experienced in consequence among
the Europeans, to whose children the disease had as yet been fortunately
unknown. About a year after I was informed it prevailed among the
aborigines at the Lachlan, Burragorang, and Cox’s river, and I remarked
that several of the blacks at Goulburn Plains, and also at other parts
of the colony, had pits on their faces, resembling those produced by
small-pox, and which, they informed me, were caused by the disease in
question. The name that this disease is known by among the aborigines
is “Thunna, thunna,” or “Túnna, tunna,” and they describe it as being
attended by sore-throat, head-ache, and high febrile symptoms, upon
the day previous to the appearance of the eruptions; the latter were
described to me as commencing in a similar manner, and passing through
the same stages as is usual in small-pox, covering the face and all parts
of the body, even to the soles of the feet and palms of the hands: it was
also stated that adults were more covered with eruptions, and suffered
more severely from the disease, than children, and the aggravation of
the symptoms caused much mortality among them. Among the children it
often occurred that only a few scattered eruptions would appear, and the
febrile symptoms also assume a very mild character. No deaths occurred in
these cases.
As far as our information at present extends, it appears not to be an
introduced disease, or at least we have no facts to prove such being the
case. It is mentioned in “Tench’s Account of the Colony of New South
Wales, 1795,” that several natives had marks resembling those left by the
eruptions of small-pox, and which I have no doubt originated from the
disease, the subject of this chapter. Several old men were marked by it;
and I understand that during the time it prevailed among the aborigines
at Wellington Valley, they did not regard it as of foreign introduction;
they considered it contagious, and when one party was attacked by this
formidable disease, the others deserted them, to avoid being infected.
None of the soldier’s children stationed at Wellington Valley took the
disorder, although the blacks about the settlement were suffering from
it; the children never had had the small-pox, but I could not be informed
whether they had been vaccinated.
This disease excited so much attention during the time it prevailed,[57]
that the government were induced to send a medical gentleman into the
interior to report upon, and give his opinion regarding, its nature.
Dr. Mair, assistant-surgeon of the thirty-ninth regiment, was deputed
to this office. A more judicious selection could not have been made,
although it may be regretted that his arrival was too late to observe
its progress through the different stages, but he indefatigably devoted
himself to procure such information as would place the nature of the
disease almost beyond a doubt. The result was a collection of most
interesting information upon its progress, character, &c., although
several interesting points are still open for further medical observation
and inquiry. On my return to Sydney, Dr. Mair kindly favoured me with a
copy of the report he made to the colonial government, and I have availed
myself of many of his remarks, and have devoted a chapter to the subject,
regarding it as one interesting to non-medical, as well as medical
readers, as the same disease, or at all events one very closely allied to
it, has been, and still too often is, the cause of much domestic misery
and suffering.
As far back as the year 1789, says Dr. Mair in his report, an eruptive
disorder, resembling the small-pox, broke out among the aborigines, and
proved extensively fatal: its marks are still to be seen on the bodies
of several of them of very advanced age, corresponding in appearance
with the pits left by the small-pox. From that distant period no similar
disease had been observed among them, till about the month of August,
1830, when Mr. Brown, of Wallerowang, first saw this eruptive malady
in five blacks, near the river Castlereagh, two in the incipient, and
three in more advanced stages. He had, however, heard of its existence
among the tribes to the northward six months before. One of these men
was afterwards seen by Mr. Brown with pits like those of small-pox, on
different parts of his body; and he ascertained that the others had
died of the disease. Mr. Brown did not meet with any more cases of the
disease till the beginning of August, 1831, when it manifested itself
in three blacks, who had been in close communication with some others
recently arrived from the Lachlan, and who had but a short time recovered
sufficiently to be able to travel. These men stated that the disease had
been raging in their part of the country, and that several had died of
it. Some of the Wallerowang blacks, convinced of its contagious nature,
had fled to Emu plains to escape infection; three of the number having
afterwards returned were seized with it.
At Wellington Valley the same malady was first remarked, (as near as
could be ascertained,) in October last year, (1830,) and continued to
affect the blacks in that vicinity to December. The poor creatures blamed
Captain Sturt for its introduction,[58] were much alarmed about it, and
are represented as having anticipated some grievous calamity; a great
fire and flood were predicted by one of their sages, which would come
from Mount Harris and destroy them. From the testimony of George Clark,
a convict, who had resided with the native tribes, far in the interior,
for several years, and was lately taken prisoner by the mounted police
the disease proceeded from the north-west coast, and spared none of the
tribes as far as Liverpool Plains, attacking twenty and thirty at a time,
none escaping its fury. The king, or chief of the tribe among whom Clark
had been naturalized, was first seized with it, and died, as had been
predicted by the kradjee, or physician and soothsayer. He had previously
been with a tribe situated near the sea, and it is probable may have seen
the disease before, although he disclaimed having any but supernatural
knowledge of it.
The plan of treatment followed in the case of the king was immersion in
cold water; four persons of less note underwent the same, and only one
survived. The consequence was, that other medicinal measures were thought
of, and the cold-bath was stigmatized and abandoned. Scorching the hair
from the head, and pricking the pustules with a sharp-pointed fish bone,
then squeezing out the fluid contained in them with the flat part of the
instrument, was the next mode of cure adopted by the kradjee; and it is
worthy of remark, that the operation suggested itself to him from the
observation that the pustules burst spontaneously, and discharged whitish
matter, in the first case of recovery.
It is curious, observes Dr. Mair, that the very same process was
recommended by Avicenna, the celebrated Arabian physician, who flourished
in the tenth century of the Christian era, and gave the first complete
history of the small-pox, with this only difference, that the learned
author used a more elegant instrument, a golden needle! and even in the
present day the same practice is approved of by the best writers on the
subject. The new method of treatment was attended with happier results
than the old, only one out of six dying of the malady; and if, continues
Dr. Mair, instead of entirely relinquishing the cold-bath, it had still
been employed with judicious caution, the mortality might have been
further reduced.
The kradjee, priest, soothsayer, or physician, (for he appears to
exercise the functions of each,) goes through many superstitious
ceremonies to cure his patient, with rods of two or three yards in
length, which he fixes in the earth in a crescentic form, and addresses
with a variety of gestures. The common people place implicit faith in
his predictions; and it is asserted by Clark, that they sometimes bury
alive those whom in his medical capacity he has abandoned. They believe
the disease to be infectious, but do not shun one another on that
account; they name it “Boulol.” The Lachlan and Wellington Valley tribes
call it Thunna, thunna; and Dr. Mair also says that he heard a most
lugubrious dirge chaunted at a Corrobera at Bathurst, commemorative of
this destructive epidemic, and judged accurately of its nature from the
melancholy note and solemn manner of the pageant.
Dr. Mair continues to state in his report, that the disease seems to have
assumed a considerable variety of forms in different individuals, but
from the concurrent testimony of all the observers who were consulted,
the following symptoms may be considered as common to all of them.
For several successive days the patient feels languid, indolent, and
oppressed, loses his appetite, suffers from head-ache, pain of chest or
stomach, increased heat of skin, and other febrile symptoms. The usual
duration of this incipient stage appears to have been from two to eight
days. It was followed by an eruption of small red spots, resembling
flea-bites, which generally commenced on the face, and gradually spread
more or less thickly over the head, breast, and extremities; the tongue
and lips were likewise involved in the eruption, and the soles of the
feet have been particularly remarked in many instances to be numerously
studded with it.
When the eruption had fully developed itself, which generally occurred
in twenty-four hours, a remission was observed to take place in the
febrile symptoms, but the patient began to complain much of pain in
the throat, and could only swallow liquids. The small red spots, or
papulæ, were converted into vesicles or pustules, in periods, varying
from three to seven or eight days; the fluid contained in these vesicles
or pustules is represented by some as resembling whey, by others milk,
and by others to be yellowish or straw-coloured, like the thin pus of
sores. It was likewise described as bloody water. When at their height
they were about the size of a pea. One very intelligent lady, who had
witnessed its effects in several of the blacks, informed me the eruption
was very like the cow-pock. The greater number of persons who had watched
its progress, and who had likewise seen the small-pox in England,
pronounced it to be that disorder. Scabs formed and fell off at different
periods, in different cases, according to the length of time occupied
by the maturation of the vesicles or pustules; these were occasionally
confluent on the nose and cheeks, and frequently left permanent marks or
indentations on the skin.
Its usual duration is stated to have been from a fortnight to three
weeks in cases of restoration to health; but even after the eruption
had entirely subsided, and the disease might be considered over, the
convalescents were unable to walk for a long time, owing to the
tenderness of their feet, from which the cuticle had entirely separated.
In many cases the other sequelæ of the disease were very distressing;
some lost their eye-sight, others had abscesses in different parts of the
body, or foul and tedious ulcers, with great debility and emaciation.
Death was said to happen generally among the Lachlan and Wellington
Valley blacks about the third day after the appearance of the eruption;
the tongue became much swollen, and covered with livid spots, the
breathing greatly oppressed, and deglutition impracticable. Secondary
fever was seldom observed, and when it occurred seemed owing to cold;
but the rarity of secondary fever is easily explained by the early
fatality of the disease in the severe cases in which only it could have
been expected. Some were said to have perished at the very onset of the
malady, before there was the slightest sign of eruption.
Among the tribes to the north-west of Liverpool Plains, the disease seems
to have approached more nearly to the description of confluent small-pox,
as it is met with in Europe. The eruption coalescing on the face, and
being followed in a day or two by salivation, (or as Clark describes
it, water pouring from the mouth as they lay on the ground,) about the
10th or 12th day, a sort of convulsive or epileptic fit took place, and
afterwards the fluid from the mouth was of a bloody appearance, and more
viscid, so as to be discharged with great difficulty.
This was considered the critical period, and was speedily followed by
death, unless the patient soon after began to rally. The great difficulty
and danger of this disease, (the confluent small-pox,) says Huxham,
chiefly comes on at the state or turn of the pox; for however easily
matters may have proceeded till this time, we are now (viz. the 7th, 9th,
or 11th day from the eruption) very often surprised with a very shocking
change, and terrible symptoms. The salivation and viscid discharge from
the mouth are particularly described by Sydenham, and other eminent
writers on this disease.
It has been remarked, by most of the eyewitnesses of this epidemic, that
it proved chiefly fatal to adults and old people, seldom to children,
and that those who had suffered from it at a former period, as indicated
by the marks on their skin, escaped it altogether, while there were few
other cases of exemption. Dr. Mair proceeds to give, in his report, cases
in which some Europeans were attacked by it, on which he has made some
very excellent observations, and I regret that my limits will oblige
me to exclude them from this work. Dr. Mair observes, that he met with
no opposition on the part of the aborigines in his wishes to extend to
them the inestimable benefits of vaccination; those who had not suffered
from the late epidemic, viewed their escape as accidental, and while its
frightful symptoms and dire effects were yet fresh in their memories
they were willing to submit to a simple operation, which, they were
told, would henceforth protect them against the disease. Dr. Mair thus
concludes his interesting and valuable report.
“1. The eruptive febrile disease, which lately prevailed among the
aborigines, was contagious, or communicable from one person to another,
and capable of being propagated by inoculation.
“2. It approached more nearly in its symptoms to the character of
small-pox than any other disease with which we are acquainted,
particularly to that species of small-pox described by Staff-surgeon
Marshall, as occurring in the Kandyan provinces in 1819.[59]
“3. The mortality attending the disease varied from one in three to one
in five or six, but might have been less if the persons labouring under
it had been sheltered from the weather, and attended by physicians.
“4. Vaccination seemed to possess a controlling power over it, as three
blacks who had been successfully vaccinated, although equally exposed to
the disease, escaped infection.
“5. It was not confined to the aborigines, but in one instance attacked a
European in the form of secondary small-pox, and proved fatal to a child
with symptoms resembling confluent small-pox.
“6. In several cases it occasioned blindness, and left many of the poor
blacks in a very debilitated and helpless condition, with marks which
could not be distinguished from the pits of small-pox on different parts
of their bodies.
“7. It was never observed to attack any of the aborigines a second time,
and it spread alarm and consternation among them.” Soon after Dr. Mair’s
report was sent in to the Colonial Government, an official notice was
published in the “Sydney Gazette,” requesting parents to have their
children vaccinated.