{"id":382,"date":"2015-05-05T10:34:55","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T10:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/?p=382"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:22:05","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:22:05","slug":"smallpox-in-leicester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/2015\/05\/05\/smallpox-in-leicester\/","title":{"rendered":"Smallpox in Leicester"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"'The<\/a>

‘The Wyvern Smiles’ from ‘The Wyvern’, (Leicester, 20 November 1891).<\/p><\/div>\n

From my reading of The Wyvern: a Topical, Critical & Humorous Journal <\/em>published in Leicester around the turn of the century, I was shocked to learn that serious outbreaks of smallpox continued to be a problem in the city right up until 1902-4. During the second half of the 19th<\/sup> century, the corporation struggled with the cost of improving the borough\u2019s inadequate system of sanitation and this obviously exacerbated the situation. But Leicester also became known for its opposition to the compulsory vaccination of infants against smallpox – the Leicester Anti-Vaccination League was formed in 1869. <\/strong>Opponents of vaccination instead advocated the \u2018Leicester method\u2019, in which every new victim of smallpox was removed to the isolation hospital and their family and contacts subjected to a period of quarantine. This determined opposition to vaccination has been linked to Leicester\u2019s \u2018spirit of \u201cnonconformist\u201d independence and of resistance to constituted authority that had at an earlier period earned for the town the name of \u201cRadical Leicester\u201d\u20191<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

\"'A<\/a>

‘A Wrong Time to Dispute and Delay. After taking a year to settle their Fever Hospital Scheme, our wise Councillors cannot make up their minds about building it.’ From ‘The Wyvern’, (Leicester, 18 November 1892).<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1871, an isolation hospital was built at Freak\u2019s Ground. This was intended as a temporary measure only and was constructed of corrugated iron, but it actually had to remain in use until 1900. The debate about where to build its replacement and how to finance this simmered for years in the borough council. The Wyvern\u2019s<\/em> cartoon for 18 November 1892, is subtitled, \u2018After taking a year to settle their Fever Hospital Scheme, our wise Councillors cannot make up their minds about building it\u2019. The spectre of Death, his robe emblazoned \u2018Smallpox\u2019 hovers above the arguing councillors. \u2018Now, when there seems to be urgent necessity for the immediate taking of steps to increase our Fever Hospital accommodation, the Council goes back on all its former resolutions \u2026 while infection is in our midst \u2026 surely this is a case where we must do something, cost what it may.\u20192<\/sup><\/p>\n

\"'The<\/a>

‘The Row Among the Sanitary Lights. Messrs. Biggs and Booth endeavour to extinguish the Medical Officer. Messrs. Bremner and Meadows extinguish themselves. “The Wyvern” wonders why the Mayor does not apply his big extinguisher to the whole business.’ From ‘The Wyvern’, (Leicester, 2 June 1893).<\/p><\/div>\n

The Wyvern<\/em> was very clear as to where it stood on the isolation vs. vaccination issue, arguing that many lives had been lost by the refusal to vaccinate and that all available measures should be used to combat the disease. The issue for 24 February 1893 contains a satirical anecdote headlined, \u2018How I Vaccinated a Town Councillor\u2019. The author is approached by a councillor \u2018Jorkins\u2019 \u2013 not his real name, \u2018a great anti-vaccinator, who had suffered all the penalties the law could inflict for refusing to have his children in-oculated\u2019. Panicked by the ever-strengthening epidemic, Jorkins now wishes to be vaccinated and pleads with the author to administer the vaccine himself, as he cannot go to a doctor for fear of being ridiculed and having to \u2018retire from public life\u2019. \u2018I went out,\u2019 the author writes, \u2018and consulted an eminent cow doctor on the subject. He said he didn\u2019t see any difficulty in vaccinating, but if I wanted to experiment first, he would lend me a dog which wanted poisoning. \u201cAll you\u2019ve got to do is to scrape the skin with a penknife until it bleeds a little, and then apply the lymph which I\u2019ll send you,\u201d he added \u2026 the following day I received some lymph in a ginger beer bottle. I then went to an ironmonger and borrowed a file, as I reasoned that whilst a penknife might do to scrape infants, it would be a pity to take the edge off my new pocket-knife by trying to peel the tough hide of a Town Councillor.\u2019 The vaccine is eventually administered, with predictable results \u2013 Jorkins\u2019 leg swells up \u2018as thick as a bolster\u20193<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

For anyone interested in the social, political, cultural or sporting history of Leicester around the turn of the 19th<\/sup>\/20th<\/sup> centuries, The Wyvern<\/em>\u00a0could be\u00a0a goldmine. If you would like to consult it, please visit http:\/\/www2.le.ac.uk\/library\/find\/specialcollections\/accesshoursandcontacts\/accessandcontacts<\/a> for information on access, hours and contacts.<\/p>\n

1<\/sup>R.A. McKinley and C.T. Smith, \u2018Social and Administrative History since 1835\u2019 in: A History of the county of Leicester<\/em>, Vol. IV, (London, 1958), p. 282, Local History H942 VIC<\/p>\n

2<\/sup>The Wyvern<\/em>, (Leicester, 18 November 1892), p. 54, PER942 W9400<\/p>\n

3<\/sup>Ibid., (Leicester, 24 February 1893), p. 285<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From my reading of The Wyvern: a Topical, Critical & Humorous Journal published in Leicester around the turn of the century, I was shocked to learn that serious outbreaks of smallpox continued to be a problem in the city right up until 1902-4. During the second half of the 19th century, the corporation struggled with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,21,28,29],"class_list":["post-382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-leicester","tag-poll-books","tag-the-wyvern","tag-victorian-periodicals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":393,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions\/393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}