Blankets(M&D spoiler)

[Matthew P Wiener]

>Re deliberate and organised smallpox infection of native Americans. Exactly
>how well known and documented is this shameful incident in America's
>(Britain's?) history? I seem to have known about it for ever but when I
>stopped to think where I first came across it, the only "source" I managed
>to come up with  was an old Buffy Saint Marie Indian lament,

Ah, the joy of keeping old articles around forever.  So far as historicity is
concerned, the song is utter nonsense.

   From: psmith at dg-webo.webo.dg.com (Peter Smith)
   Newsgroups: sci.classics,sci.skeptic
   Subject: Re: Smallpox on blankets (Was: Afrocentrism)
   Message-ID: <1993Feb18.222246.6113 at webo.dg.com>
   Date: 18 Feb 93 22:22:46 GMT
   [...]

   Actually, this gets rehashed at least once a year in one newsgroup or
   another.  Here's a summary for the Spring'92 go-around in soc.history:

    -- Surviving correspondence between Colonel Bousquet at Fort Pitt and
       Governor-General Amherst shows Bousquet proposing the idea and
       Amherst enthusiastically endoursing it.

    -- A letter from Captain William Trent admits to conducting the
       transaction and hoping "it will have the desired effect."

    -- The accounts for Fort Pitt contains the debit for the two blankets
       and two handkerchief given, with the purpose noted and subsequent
       approval by General Gage.

   Primary quotes & citations are available in:

   Francis Jennings, _Empire of Fortune_ (Norton, 1988)

   Roy MacGregor, _Chief_ (Penguin, 1990)

   Francis Parkman, _The Conspiracy of Pontiac_ (1851, rep. Library of
       America, 1991)

   Ronald Wright, _Stolen Continents: The Americas Through Indian Eyes
       Since 1492_ (Houghton-Mifflin, 1992)

   As for the efficacy of spreading smallpox this way, Harrison's
   Principals of Internal Medicine says:  "Smallpox is not as contagious as
   measles or influenza, and ordinarily face-to-face contact with an
   infected person is required to transmit the disease." However, it later
   states:  "[the virus] may contaminate clothing, bedding, dust, or other
   inanimate objects and remain infectious for months, necessitating
   disinfection of articles in the patient's environment.

   Brittainica further notes:  "The virus is very stable and can survive
   for long periods outside the body.  It has survived in bales of cotton
   for 18 months, so that laundry contaminated by a smallpox patient is a
   source of infection and in outbreaks in Europe laundry has often been
   shown to have spread the disease."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whether there was any success or not is apparently unknown.  Personally, I
do not comprehend why this method is singled out for special outrage.
--
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba at sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)