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Envelope tucked inside book may yield 1800s smallpox sample
washington post via seattle times ^
| 12/27/03
Posted on 12/27/2003 7:14:46 PM PST by knak
Librarian Susanne Caro was leafing through an 1888 book on Civil War medicine when she spied a small, yellowed envelope tucked between the pages. Freeing it, she read the inscription "scabs from vaccination of W.B. Yarrington's children" in the corner, with the signature "Dr. W.D. Kelly," the book's author.
After some research, the 23-year-old Santa Fe, N.M., woman decided not to open the envelope. "The only thing I could find connected with it," she said, "was smallpox."
After a cross-country relay involving the FBI, the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Md., and Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the envelope rests in a freezer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, awaiting a battery of tests.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: smallpox; somebookmark
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1
posted on
12/27/2003 7:14:47 PM PST
by
knak
To: knak; genefromjersey
ping
2
posted on
12/27/2003 7:16:52 PM PST
by
Calpernia
(Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does.)
To: knak
Interesting.
3
posted on
12/27/2003 7:20:47 PM PST
by
fso301
To: knak
After some research, the 23-year-old Santa Fe, N.M., woman decided not to open the envelope. Good call.
4
posted on
12/27/2003 7:29:02 PM PST
by
kennedy
To: kennedy
Well the scabs part would raise an alarm.
5
posted on
12/27/2003 7:41:18 PM PST
by
Bogey78O
(If Mary Jo Kopechne had lived she'd support Ted Kennedy's medicare agenda! /sarcasm)
Comment #6 Removed by Moderator
To: knak
the envelope rests in a freezer Yeah after a zillion years at room temperature better keep that sucker in a freezer now.
To: wackyforwesties
Probably not.
8
posted on
12/27/2003 8:05:58 PM PST
by
katz
())))
To: kennedy
Good thing Dumb and Dumber didn't get it first. They would have tasted it.
9
posted on
12/27/2003 8:14:06 PM PST
by
Blood of Tyrants
(Even if the government took all your earnings, you wouldn’t be, in its eyes, a slave.)
To: rageaholic
Yeah after a zillion years at room temperature better keep that sucker in a freezer now.
LOL You're sharp tonight!
10
posted on
12/27/2003 8:20:07 PM PST
by
gcruse
(http://gcruse.typepad.com/)
To: knak
If there's a follow-up article with the results, don't forget to post it. Fascinating.
To: knak
Hmmm...maybe THAT'S where the anthrax letters came from. Alert the FBI!
12
posted on
12/27/2003 8:35:31 PM PST
by
beezdotcom
(I'm usually either right or wrong.)
To: rageaholic
Yeah after a zillion years at room temperature better keep that sucker in a freezer now.
It's like refrigerating jerky...
13
posted on
12/27/2003 8:38:22 PM PST
by
dyed_in_the_wool
("Have we actually cut the head of the snake or is he just an idiot hiding in a hole?")
To: knak
Ummmm, wasn't the small pox vacination done with cow pox? The vaccina virus instead of variola(?)...
14
posted on
12/27/2003 8:39:34 PM PST
by
null and void
(Hey islamofascists! America is your Azrael...)
To: null and void
I was thinking the same thing but remembered reading that "sometimes" in the past,when one of the less destructive strains of smallpox was going around,people would have "Pox Parties".
Everyone could mix and mingle with the infected folks,become infected themselves,and thus gain immunity from any more devastating strain they might meet with later.
Quite a gamble but it must have been worth it to people that really knew what a "bad" strain could do.
15
posted on
12/27/2003 9:05:35 PM PST
by
Free Trapper
(One with courage is often a majority)
To: msdrby
ping
To: aristeides
Interesting.
17
posted on
12/27/2003 9:36:10 PM PST
by
blam
To: knak
Very interesting...thanks for this post.
18
posted on
12/27/2003 11:27:47 PM PST
by
LibertyLight
(Grateful for Free Rebublic)
To: Free Trapper
I just read the John Adams bio and it was the practice of some to get their children and families inoculated from the lesions of people with actual small pox,,reportedly it caused a less serious illness and provided immunity. Abigail Adams did this with their children and one of them was really sick. It was a desperate move to protect the kids and family and it worked. Risky but those people weren't as risk aversive as we are. She was a smart cookie not to open the damn thing. Makes you wonder how many envelopes with scabs exist iin attics, books, etc.
19
posted on
12/28/2003 2:40:27 AM PST
by
cajungirl
(I adore the Brits!! Tony Blair is my hero!!)
To: cajungirl
Yep.It reminds me of articles I've read lately about people that don't want to use chickenpox vaccine,so they have a party where their kids play with infected kids.
By having chickenpox as a child,they don't have the chance of catching it as an adult when it can really mess you up.
20
posted on
12/28/2003 4:14:14 AM PST
by
Free Trapper
(One with courage is often a majority)
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