"inoculating" against smallpox in the old days

[Mike Cleven]

At 04:16 AM 2/3/99 -0800, Jeffrey Kopp wrote:
>On Wed, 3 Feb 1999 10:44:44 +0100, you wrote:
>
>>Malaria ("fever and ague") was the deadliest of all infections, it raged
in the
>>1830s and killed three-forths of the native population around
Ft.Vancouver in
>>one year (1830). Mortality between 1830 and 1841 in the Willamette and
Columbia
>>Valleys was an average 92% (from an estimated 13,940 to 1,175), unequally
>>distributed. Only 2 per cent of the Kiksht speaking peoples in the Portland
>>Basin survived the mentioned period (Boyd 1990: 137ff.).
>>
>>So much about that.
>>Henry
>
>Well, that surprises me; I knew the Chinooks were nearly wiped out prior
>to the Oregon Trail, but thought the main culprit was smallpox.  I had
>heard of "fever and ague" but didn't realize it was malaria; it is
>certainly wet here, but I thought the cool climate would not harbor it.
>I do recall the mosquitos were severe on the lower Willamette in the
>1960s and aggressive control efforts were undertaken, including aerial
>spraying, which was controversial.  (The early 1960s were very wet
>years.  My childhood memories are mostly of mud.)

One of my neighbours when I was growing up worked for the mosquito control
projects - destroying wetlands, spraying DDT, etc.  Probably such energies
could have been better spent breeding bats!  Mosquito infestation in the
Lower Mainland was a major issue, given the history of malaria here.  It
doesn't need a hot climate.  Only infected carriers and enough mosquitos to
spread it around.


>I don't know much about malaria but don't think humans are a vector; if
>it was not present here before immigration, might it have been carried
>in by livestock?

Possibly.  There was a fair bit of contact between BC/NW and Central
America because of shipping routes, as well as with the SW Pacific (this
being more likely in the case of the 1830s)......



>
>Cholera, which took such a toll on the trail, might not have affected
>the population here (natives and settled immigrants) as much, but as the
>Indians were dislocated and crowded it may have become a factor.  I
>wonder what role it played in the native reduction.

Cholera and typhoid (typhus?) are both mentioned in the "Early Vancouver"
books I've got.  Don't recall any mention of their effects on the native
populations.  Tuberculosis was and still is a major problem.