Tom Apple wrote:

> I'm pretty sure that that the use of infected blankets to spread smallpox has
> proven to be a myth. The one instance of blankets given to the Indians that
> alledgedly had been infected was at Fort Pitt during the French and Indian
> War. Some blankets from the hopsital were give as gifts because those were
> the only extra blankets available. The ability of a few blankets to even be
> able to spread the pathogen has been questioned. The most likely cause of
> spread of smallpox in that instance occured when the Indians scalped those
> who had already died of smallpox putting them in direct contact with an
> active pathogen from the blood.
>
> Other than that one alledged incident where the Indians were given blankets
> and there were people infected with smallpox present, there have been no
> other documented incidents that Indians were given infected blankets to
> deliberately spread the disease.
>

This is probably *not* a myth. See the refs to Jeffrey Amherst and other smallpox
related episodes in the following H-West exchange from 1995:
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~west/threads/disc-smallpox.html

Doug Deal
History/SUNY Oswego

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