Andrew
Calvin Walker
was a doctor in Norma
when his picture apparently was used to illustrate an
article in the local paper about the outbreak of some
sort of pox. He wrote the letter below to the editor
as a sarcastic "protest" but also as an educational
tool to tell the public about the epidemic. Whether
he sent it or whether it was published in any form is
unknown.
He gives a date but not a year, but based on the fact
that he said he had been practicing 27 years, the letter
probably dates to the mid-to-late 1910s. The newspaper
was probably the Huntsville Chronicle, of which
very few issues survive at the Tennessee State Archives.
Material courtesy Robert Emmit Walker. Click any page
for a larger version.
Norma Tenn
To the Personal in Chronicle of Feb. 28
I want to say that I had my Photo made just for
fun to send to my children & Did not aim for
this world to see them but as the Editor got his
papers on it & made some trite remarks about
me I want to say that if I could have had it taken
this day before I did while the Pustules were
all so prominent it would have kept the mold out
of the Editors Garden but they had shrunk considerably
when I posed; But I felt so indisposed & it
was a rainy & hard day I could not show myself
to perfection so I defered [sic] until next day
and my bumps attrofied [sic]. Hence I think I
Produced a nice picture except I had not shaved
for 2 weeks on account of a few bumps on my countinance
[sic] & then to think the Editor had to but
[sic] in & say my beauty was Disfigured or
that it played "an ugly" word, with
my beauty.
Now this is getting right next to one of the
tinder [sic] places about the Human Anatomy or
Phisaognamy [sic] & this is where the whole
kick is coming, for I have always known or though[t]
I was good looking & then to think that because
I had the misfortune to contract the Black [unreadable,
"orhinorchus"?] Chicken Pox, or the
Cuban itch, or the Elephant itch or whatever it
is, I should not be entirely
discarded as a disfigured, ruined back number
of the human Race. Especially as I have emerged
from my Pustules & decaded [sic] & rotten
appearance have shed off & feel fine &
am glad to say that my nice, smooth & clear
countinance is just about as facinating [sic]
& beautiful as before I contract the what
ever it is.
Now as to what I think this trouble is we have
here, I am just as honest as I can be, or as I
am about anything I meet in my Professional work.
First, it is not Chicken Pox, because it is to
[sic]severe, lasting to long, Eruption to deep
in the skin to long from first chill & Fever
until the Papule or Eruption appear
& altogether to severe and I have never met
any other disease it might be confused with but
Small Pox & it does not fill all the symptoms
for it, as there is not any depression in the
center of the Vesicles or Blister & again
there are new Bumps appear in the field among
the old ones now & then, so then two things
have confused my judgment on this Epidemic but
as to the change of the Eruption together with
the Prodromes I can't help but think that it is
a very light Epidemic of S. Pox & still not
as light as some meals I have eaten or some other
things I have met.
Now as to what this Strait Fork writer said about
the later[?] Doctors not knowing anything about
Small Pox only what they read we all know the
Small Pox has nearly run out as to what it was
50 or 100 yrs. ago.
the point is has it all ameliorated or has drifted
some of its main features shuch [sic] as the depression
in the center of Blister for in this Epidemic
we have nearly every Symptom of Small Pox, will
those we do not have eliminate it from the list?
We had the depression in 1901 & also in 1903
when I was Co. Physician & during the 2 Epidemics
I tracked 61 cases of what was called S- Pox.
They were just like these except the depression
in center of Blister as far as I can see.
Well I will close by saying I have been Practicing
medicine nearly 27 years & have had all contagious
Diseases, except the Thrush & S.P. so far
as I remember & now I have just got over this
Pest & as it was all over the outside I take
it for granted it was not the Thrush at least.
With the very best wishes for everybdoy, I remain
one of your True Friends.
