Smallpox ravaged Alexander the Great’s army in India in 327 B.C. and eventually became endemic in Europe, killing four hundred thousand Europeans annually by the eighteenth century. In addition to countless low-born victims, royal fatalities included Peter II of Russia, Louis I of Spain, and Louis XV of France. Transmitted by Portuguese and Spanish conquistadors to the New World, “the speckled monster” contributed to the collapse of the Aztec and Inca Empires, while decimating other indigenous tribes. The standard treatments of bleeding and purging were ineffective, as were such exotic
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