Smallpox and vaccination

Smallpox, once the scourge of our forefathers, has become such a rare disease in Massachusetts that we have become unmindful of its pestilential power. Unless our interests embrace the problems of preventive medicine, we have little conception of what a loathsome and dangerous disease smallpox really is; we do not realize that it still exists with all its horrible features, and that, instead of being conquered, it is at best only held at bay by the continued practice of vaccination. - p. 11-12.