that are usually firm to the touch. The fever returns and remains elevated until scabs begin to form over the pustules. By the end of the second week, most of the pustules have scabbed over and begin to fall off. Usually by the end of the third week, most of the scabs have fallen off leaving pitted scars on the skin. In rare cases, some people may become blind. "In the past, three out of every ten people infected with smallpox died, and on average, each infected person may infect about three to five other people."4 Individuals who survive smallpox are no longer susceptible to the disease.
             Smallpox has been around for centuries. The earliest physical evidence to support the presence of smallpox has been found in the mummified remains of early Egyptians. The Cairo Museum has on display the mummified remains of Rameses V, a pharaoh who died in 1157 B.C., which shows evidence of yellow pustules on his face and hands.5 Once it became established in Egypt, traders carried the disease eastward into Persia and India. Early Indian medical texts described the disease and the effects it had upon the population as early as 1500 B.C. The Huns may have introduced the disease around A.D. 250 to the Chinese. The disease continued on its path through northern Italy and southern France around A.D. 580 and 581. A French bishop, by the name of Gregory of Tours, wrote a vivid description of a deceased nobleman covered with pustules. "It appeared black and burnt, as if it has been laid on a coal fire."6
             The disease continued on its path sweeping through the British Isles and Western Europe during the 1300s. By the mid 1400s, it found its way to Paris, France where it reached epidemic proportions and approximately 50,000 people died. Smallpox was a passenger on one of the voyages to the new world that had been discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Twenty years after his discovery, approximately one-third of the population of His...