"chicken pox"--why "chicken"?

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>     Would anyone have any idea at all why "chicken" turns up in "chicken
> pox"?

Compare the analogous disease names cowpox, horsepox, rabbitpox, monkeypox,
swine pox, goat pox, fowl pox, etc., etc. ...

Some of these can infect humans; for example, cowpox (a disease of cows)
causes a mild disease in humans and was the basis of the original smallpox
vaccine.

It sure looks like chickenpox once was thought to be a disease contracted
by and from chickens. I think one of the OED citations speculates along
this line.

-- Doug Wilson