Small"pox` (?), n. [Small + pox, pocks.] Med.
A contagious, constitutional, febrile disease characterized by a peculiar eruption; variola. The cutaneous eruption is at first a collection of papules which become vesicles (first flat, subsequently umbilicated) and then pustules, and finally thick crusts which slough after a certain time, often leaving a pit, or scar.
<-- now no longer observed, after a long campaing of
vaccination apparently succeeded in eliminating all human carriers by 1995. -->
© Webster 1913.