which is capable of seeing and distinguishing viruses, did not begin to become available to doctors until the 1940s, there is little doubt that at least the second group of outbreaks were true smallpox. They had its typical death-rate of around one death per four recorded infections, and its relatively slow infection rate. They did not selectively kill Aboriginal persons, and there was no mystery as to their origin. In total this second group killed about one hundred people.

The first group of outbreaks, which primarily affected non-Europeans,