Category: Health
Armed Guards Sealed Off Virginia Smallpox Region
Armed guards once surrounded a small mountain region of Virginia to keep smallpox from escaping. In February 1900, the Denmark area near the headwaters of…
New Rochelle Farmers Threatened to Burn Pesthouse Built for Smallpox Patients
The fight over a pesthouse in New Rochelle had turned into something close to open rebellion. In the Jerusalem Woods north of the city, health…
Yale Medical Student Trapped in Pesthouse After Volunteering to Treat Smallpox Patient
When smallpox appeared in Derby, Connecticut, fear spread almost as quickly as the disease. C.P. Cook was taken to the town pesthouse, isolated from everyone…
Nebraska Butcher Accused of Picking His Teeth Before Handling Meat
In 1923, one southeastern Nebraska housewife had seen enough. The village butcher, she claimed, had habits that were not merely unpleasant, but downright alarming for…
Man Visits Sick Wife at Hospital, Gets Mistaken for Lunatic and Locked Up
Albert Smith went to the hospital expecting to visit his sick wife. Instead, he was greeted like a man everyone had been waiting for. The…
Doctor Said a Plumber’s $21 Tool Worked Best for Burning Out Cancer
In 1924, a Johns Hopkins surgeon startled listeners in Atlantic City with the unlikely claim that one of the best tools for cauterizing cancerous growths…
Smallpox Strikes New York’s House of Refuge on Randalls Island
In the spring of 1894, fear of one of America’s most dreaded diseases swept through a New York institution housing hundreds of troubled boys. What…
Skimmed Milk Blamed for Infant Malnutrition
In the years just after World War I, milk was a daily necessity, especially for families with infants and young children. But in 1919, as…
