BACK FROM CLAY CITY

Dr. A. W. Brayton Says It Is Smallpox

-From Salem

Drs. A. W. and Nelson Brayton returned last evening from the smallpox-infected districts of Clay county. “It is genuine smallpox,” said Dr. A. W. Brayton. “There is no question about it. True, most of the cases are very mild and there will probably be few deaths, but there is no denying that it is smallpox. The people are paying little heed to the orders of Dr. Hurty, and are carrying the contagion from house to house.”

A Contagious Rash

Special to the Indianapolis Journal

SALEM, Ind., Jan 19. – County Health Officer Mayfield went to Gibson township yesterday and telephones that he has found sixty-four cases of the so-called smallpox. The disease started at the little village of Lesterville, and has spread all over the west and south side of the township. It began before Christmas and has been spreading ever since. It was treated for chicken-pox, and is believed to be that. Patients are sick but a few days, and it is very much unlike smallpox. There have been no deths and no very serious cases. People about Lesterville were not disturbed about it until the state health officers called it smallpox. It was believed to be, and probably is, a contagious rash.

“Back From Clay City,” The Indianapolis Journal (Indianapolis, Indiana), 20 January 1900, p. 8, col. 1; digital image, Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ : accessed 6 December 2014).