The Greatest Killer: Smallpox in HistoryOnce known as the "great fire" or "spotted death," smallpox has been rivaled only by plague as a source of supreme terror. Although naturally occurring smallpox was eradicated in 1977, recent terrorist attacks in the United States have raised the possibility that someone might craft a deadly biological weapon from stocks of the virus that remain in known or perhaps unknown laboratories. In The Greatest Killer, Donald R. Hopkins provides a fascinating account of smallpox and its role in human history. Starting with its origins 10,000 years ago in Africa or Asia, Hopkins follows the disease through the ancient and modern worlds, showing how smallpox removed or temporarily incapacitated heads of state, halted or exacerbated wars, and devastated populations that had never been exposed to the disease. In Hopkins's history, smallpox was one of the most dangerous-and influential-factors that shaped the course of world events. |
Contents
Presumed spread of smallpox in ancient times | 20 |
Two The Most Terrible of | 22 |
Effects of smallpox on the House of Stuart partial family tree | 40 |
Deaths from smallpox in seventeenth eighteenth and nineteenthcentury London | 42 |
Effects of smallpox on the Austrian House of Habsburg partial family tree | 45 |
Deaths from smallpox in London and Geneva 15801869 | 86 |
Deaths from smallpox in nineteenthcentury Prussia Austria and England | 92 |
St Nicaise patron saint of smallpox | 100 |
Deaths from smallpox in India 18681930 | 153 |
Shitala mata Hindu goddess of smallpox | 160 |
Five The Spotted Death | 164 |
Early outbreaks and possible spread of smallpox in Africa | 170 |
Shapona Yoruba god of smallpox | 201 |
OmoluObaluaye Brazilian and Cuban god of smallpox | 232 |
Seven A Destroying Angel | 234 |
Spread of V minor in North America | 287 |
Three Heavenly Flowers | 103 |
TouShen Niang Niang Chinese goddess of smallpox | 136 |
Four Kiss of the Goddess | 139 |
Eight Erythrotherapy and Eradication | 295 |
Decline in smallpoxendemic countries 3069 | 306 |
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