Tag: scottish history

Anatomy def: An acute contagious viral disease characterized by fever and prolific pustules, leaving survivors with permanent scars.

Outlander def: Ship-burning plague rendering Claire and Jamie enemies of the Frenchie, Comte St. Germain! Oopsie!

Learn about smallpox in Anatomy Lesson #21, “Smallpox” or “The Devils Mark.”

Smallpox (one word) was first used as a term in 15th century Great Britain to distinguish it from syphilis, the “great pox.”

Read about smallpox in Diana Gabaldon’s second book, Dragonfly in Amber!

I approached him cautiously, … He was flushed with fever, his skin a queer dark red, scabbed thick with white pustules. … I sank to my knees by the sick man and opened his filthy shirt. … His arms were relatively clear, but the pustules clustered thickly down his chest and stomach, and his skin was burning to the touch. I had seen smallpox many times before, in the uncivilized parts of the world to which my uncle Lamb, an eminent archaeologist, had taken me during my early years. …“I’m afraid it is smallpox,” I said.

See sailors stricken with smallpox in Starz episode 201 “Through a Glass Darkly.” Wonderful special effects – raised lesions with small dimpled centers typifying smallpox lesions. Well done Outlander! yay!

a deeply grateful,

Outlander Anatomist