Disinfected letters

Abstract

In our times no one is at all surprised to see that many countries demand a vaccination certificate from travellers who reach their frontiers, be they tourists, immigrants or even only in transit; and no one would ever dream of evading the duty of immunizing oneself against smallpox, typhus, cholera or yellow fever when undertaking an international voyage. Let us for a moment go back to, say, the last two centuries and we shall undoubtedly find that the history of these times has some very dark pages dealing with the frightful and deadly epidemics of plague, cholera smallpox and other infectious diseases which during these times afflicted humanity to a very great extent. During the latter centuries the Sanitary Authorities became deeply concerned by the arrival of the mail. Although at the time the existence of bacilli was still unknown, yet it had already been assumed that letters could be good carriers of contagious disease. In some instances the Authorities went so far as to stop altogether the circulation of letters. Later it had been decided to disinfect the flaps or as it was then called to purify them.