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CHARLES HUNTRISS - LETTERS HOME

Smallpox

I have been expecting a letter such a long time for I think I wrote to you but I don't think you have answered it yet. When are you coming to London because the merit holiday is from next Saturday till Monday. My birthday being on the Sunday but there is an awful lot of small-pox in London at Highgate Islington

... so I have heard from 2 or 3 people and at Westminster there are black flags hung out to warn people off streets where it thickest. I have heard of 1 or 2 cases here but a lot of us were vaccinated today. K himself and Thomas who was in an awful feint about it, but it was no use they would do it in spite of his excuses about carrying up the coal boxes and ?????, blacking boots etc.

Thank Jessy for her letter. We had no skating here today to speak of. When I was vaccinated this morning I began to feel awful ???? short time after. I think I was on the point of fainting but one of the ...

... the chaps brought me a glass of port and I went and laid down and soon I got alright again.

I have nothing else to say so with love to all, I remain your affectionate son

The Great Smallpox Pandemic of 1870 to 1875 was the last major smallpox epidemic to reach pandemic level across Europe. The outbreak has its origins in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 to 1871, where unvaccinated French prisoners of war infected the German civilian population, before the virus then spread to all corners of Europe.



A ward in the Hampstead Smallpox Hospital, 1871. This was built to meet the needs of the epidemic of the winter of 1870 to 1871. This shows a 'Nightingale' ward with windows opening top and bottom. With identical windows on the opposite side, ventillation could be adjusted. From The Illustrated London News. (London, 1871). (Photo by Oxford Science Archive/Print Collector/Getty Images)