Above all, don't look at what is blurred in the distance, but do what is clear at hand.

In the spring of 1871, a young man, a medical student at Monterey General Hospital, had a life full of worries: how to pass his final exams? What things to do? Where to go? How to open a business? How can I make a living? He picks up a book and comes across 24 words that have a big impact on his future.

These 24 words made the young medical student in 1871 the most famous medical doctor of his time. He founded the world-famous Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, he became the Chancellor's Chair of Medicine at Oxford University - the highest honor available to the medical profession in the British Empire - and you were knighted by the King of England. After his death, the two major volumes chronicling his life's experiences ran to 1,466 pages in their original form.

He was Sir William Osler, and the 24 words he saw in the spring of 1871 helped him live a carefree life. Those 24 words were, "The important thing is not to look at what is blurred in the distance, but to do what is clear at hand." It was written by Thomas Callery.

Forty-two years later, on a warm spring evening on a campus full of tulips, Sir William Osler addressed the students of Yale University. He told the Yale students that a man like this, who had been a professor at four universities and had written a popular book, seemed to have a "special mind," but did not. Some of his best friends said. His brain is actually "ordinary".

So what is the secret of his success? He thinks it's because he lives in "a completely separate day".

What does the phrase "a completely separate day" mean? A few months before he went to speak at Yale, he had traveled across the Atlantic on a very large ocean liner. He saw the captain stand in the pilothouse and press a button, and after a rattle of machinery running, the several parts of the ship were instantly cut off from each other - separated into several watertight compartments. Dr. Osler said to the Yale students, "Every one of you has a much finer mechanism than that great ocean liner, and a much longer voyage to travel. I would like to advise you that you, too, should learn to control everything about yourselves. Only by living in a "completely independent today" can you be safe on your voyage. In the cockpit, you'll find large compartments for each purpose. Push a button. Look at each side of your life and use the iron door to cut off the past - the yesterday that's gone; press another button and use the iron door to cut off the future - the tomorrow that's yet to be born. Then you're insured - you have all of today ...... cut off the past. Bury the past that is gone, and cut off those yesterdays that would lead a fool to the path of death ...... The burdens of tomorrow coupled with the burdens of yesterday will surely be the greatest obstacle to today. To shut out the future as tightly as the past ...... The future lies today ...... There is never a tomorrow; the day of man's salvation is now. Waste of energy, mental anguish, all cling to a man who worries about the future ...... Then compartmentalize the barns in front of and behind the ship. Prepare to develop a good habit. Live in a 'completely separate today'"

Is Dr. Osler advocating that people don't have to put in the work to prepare for tomorrow? No, absolutely not. In that talk, he went on to say that focusing all your intelligence, all your enthusiasm, on doing the best you can today is the best way you can meet the future.

Sir Osler encouraged those Yale students to begin each day by reciting the following benediction, "On this day we shall receive the bread of today."

Remember, the benediction simply asks for today's bread, and does not complain about the sourdough bread we had yesterday. Nor does it say, "Oh dear, the wheat fields have been so parched lately that we may have another drought. Will we be able to eat bread by fall? -- or, in case I lose my job -- how will I get bread then?"

This benediction tells us to ask for today's bread only, and that the only bread we may eat is today's bread.

A long time ago. A penniless philosopher wandered into a barren countryside where the people lived a very hard life. One day a group of people gathered around him on a hilltop. He utters a quote that is perhaps the most quoted quote of all time. It is only 30 words long, but it has survived centuries and generations: "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has its own worries; one day's hardship is enough for one day's suffering."

Many people do not believe in this saying of Jesus, "Don't worry about tomorrow". He took it as a kind of superfluous advice and looked upon it as an Eastern mystery. Always refused to believe it. They say, "I've got to worry about tomorrow, I've got to insure my family. I must save my money for the future when I am older. I have to plan and prepare for the future.

Yes, of course all of this must be done. In fact, those words of Jesus were translated over 300 years ago. The word worry now means something completely different from what it meant in the days of the James. 300 years ago, the word worry usually also meant anxiety. The New Translation of the Bible translates Jesus' words more serviceably and accurately, "Don't be anxious about tomorrow."

Yes, one must think about tomorrow, carefully consider, plan, and prepare, but not worry.

Military leaders in wartime must plan for the future, but they must not be anxious. Admiral Ernest Ginn, who commanded the U.S. Navy, said, "I give the best equipment to the best men, and I give them tasks that seem to be excellent. That's all I can do."

He added: "If a boat sinks, I can't get it up. If a boat keeps sinking, I can't hold it back. I'm much better off spending my time solving tomorrow's problems than regretting yesterday's. Besides, if I keep worrying about these things, I won't last long."

The difference between a good idea and a bad idea, whether in wartime or in peacetime, is that a good idea takes into account the causes and consequences, resulting in a logical and constructive plan, while a bad idea can lead to a person's nervousness and mental breakdown.

Recently, I had the honor of visiting with Arthur Sulzberger, the world-famous publisher of The New York Times. Mr. Sulzberger told me that he was astonished when the flames of the Second World War spread across Europe. Anxiety about the future kept him up at night. He often got out of bed in the middle of the night, took a canvas and paints, looked in the mirror and tried to paint a self-portrait. He knew nothing about painting. But to stop himself from worrying, he painted anyway. Finally, he used seven words from a hymn as his motto and eventually got rid of his worries and gained peace. Those seven words are, "It only takes one step."

Guide me, kind light ......

Let thee always be at my feet,

I don't want to see far,

It's only a step away.

Around this time, there was a young man in the military - somewhere in Europe - who had similarly learned this. His name was Ted Benjamin, and he lived at 5716 Newholm Road, Baltimore, Maryland - and he had been so worried that he had almost completely lost his fighting spirit.

Ted Benjamin writes: "In April 1945, I was so worried that I came down with what the doctors called colonic spasms, which were extremely painful. I thought that if the war had not ended then, my whole being would have collapsed.

"I was exhausted. My job as a noncommissioned officer in the 94th Infantry Division was to keep a record of casualties and missing in action, and to help dig up soldiers who had been killed in the heat of battle and then hastily buried, and return their belongings to their families and friends. I was constantly worried that something would happen to me, doubting that I would make it through this time, doubting that I would make it back alive to hold my 16-month-old son, whom I had yet to meet. I was both sad and exhausted. I lost 34 pounds and nearly went crazy. I watched my hands become skin and bones and dreaded the thought of coming home skinny and weak. I broke down and often cried and shook all alone. There was a time, not long after the beginning of the last great German counter-offensive, when I cried so often that it even made me give up hope of ever getting back to a normal life again.

"Finally, I was hospitalized, and an army doctor gave me some advice that changed my whole life. After I had a thorough physical examination, he told me that my problems were purely mental, 'Ted,' he said, 'I want you to think of life as a sand funnel. In the top half of the funnel, there are thousands of grains of sand that slowly flourish and evenly pass through that thin slit in the middle. Except for the sand funnel, you and I can't get more than two grains of sand to pass through that narrow slit at the same time. Each one of us is like this funnel, when the day begins; there are many things we have to accomplish as quickly as possible. But we can only do it piece - by - piece; letting the work pass through as slowly and evenly as the grains of sand, otherwise we are bound to damage our physical and mental health."

"From the memorable day, that is, after the army doctor told me this passage. I have always practiced this philosophy. "Pass one grain of sand at a time ...... one thing at a time.' This advice saved me in wartime, and it has helped me immensely in what I am currently doing in the public **** relations and advertising department of the printing company. I have found that in the realm of care, there is a similar problem to that of the battlefield in that several things have to be done at once, but time is limited. Materials have to be replenished, new forms have to be processed, new information has to be arranged, addresses change, branches open or close. ...... But I no longer panic. I repeat over and over again the silent recitation of the military district's advice work more efficiently than ever before, and no longer have that confused, disorganized feeling that nearly broke me in battle."

One of the most frightening aspects of the present way of life is that more than half the hospital beds are reserved for the mentally or neurologically challenged. They are patients weighed down by the combined weight of accumulated yesterdays and feared tomorrows. Most of them would do well to keep in mind these words of Jesus, "Do not be anxious about tomorrow." Or these words of Dr. Osler: "Live in a completely separate today." Then you can all walk down the street today without worry and live a happy and rewarding life.

You and I, in the moment before us, stand at the meeting point of two eternities, the intersection of the eternally passing past and the never-ending future, and we cannot live in two eternities, not even for a second. That would destroy us physically and mentally. As it is, let us be content to live in this moment. Rob Stevenson said, "No matter how heavy the burden, everyone can support himself until the night comes. No matter how hard the work, every man can finish the day, can live very sweetly, very patiently, very lovingly, very purely until the sun goes down, and that is the true meaning of life."

True, that's all life asks of us. But. But Mrs. Jerde, who lives at 815 Court Street in Sandy Branch, Michigan, was so depressed that she almost tried to kill herself before she learned "just live until you go to bed". She told me about this period of her life: "When my husband died in 1937, I felt very depressed - and almost penniless. I wrote to my old boss, Mr. Leo Rossi, who owned the Rover Company in Kansas City, and I asked him to let me go back to my old job. I used to sell world encyclopedias to schools. When my husband got sick two years ago, I sold my automobile. To get back to work, I barely scraped together enough money to buy an old car on installments and started going out to sell books.

"I had thought that going back to work might help me break free from my disillusionment. But the life of always driving alone and eating alone was almost too much for me to bear. Plus, there are places where you simply can't market your book, so it's hard to pay for a car even if the installments are small.

"In the spring of 1938 I was selling books in Visalia, Missouri. The schools there were poor and the roads were bad. I was alone and lonely and depressed, so much so that at one point I even tried to kill myself. I felt there was little hope for success and little joy in life. Every morning I was afraid to get up and face life. I was afraid of everything: I was afraid of not being able to pay my installment car payment, I was afraid of not being able to pay my rent, I was afraid of not having enough food, and I was afraid of messing up my body and not having the money to go to the doctor. The only thing that kept me from committing suicide was my fear that my sister would grieve over it, and besides, she didn't have an abundance of money to pay for my funeral.

"Then I read an article that lifted me out of my depression and gave me the courage to go on with my life. I will always and forever be grateful for the uplifting quote from the article: 'To a wise man, every day is a new life.' I typed and taped that quote to the windshield window of my car with my typewriter so that I could see it every moment I drove. I found it wasn't difficult to live just one day at a time, and I learned to forget the past and not think about the future. Every morning I say to myself. 'Today is another new life.'

"I managed to overcome my fear of loneliness and neediness. The whole thing is very fastidious and my career is still successful. And have a passion and love for life. I now know that whatever problems I may encounter in life, I will not be afraid of them anymore; I now know that I do not have to fear the future. I now know. I only have to live one day at a time - and 'to a wise man every day is a new life'."

Guess who wrote the following lines:

This man is happy, and only he can be.

The mission is that he can call this day. Call it his day;

He can feel secure in today, able to say:

'No matter how bad tomorrow will be, I've had my day.'

These lines may seem very modern, but they were written by the ancient Roman poet Horace 39 years before the birth of Christ.

I think one of the most pathetic things about human habitation is that all of us procrastinate about getting actively involved in life. We yearn for a marvelous rose garden in the sky, but we never take care to appreciate the roses that are opening in our windows today.

How did we get to be such fools - such poor fools?

"How strange the little course of our lives can be," writes Stephen Leacock: "Little children often say, 'When I am a big child,' but what of it? The big kid says, 'When I'm a grown-up.' And when he is a grown-up, he says, 'When I get married,' but what happens when he gets married, and their thoughts turn to 'When I retire.' However, when he retired, he looked back at all that he had been through and it seemed like a cold wind had blown through him. Somehow he had missed it all, and it was all gone. We always fail to realize early on that life is in life, in every day and every moment."

The late Mr. Edward Evans, of the city of Detroit, nearly committed suicide from depression before learning that "life is in life, every day and every hour." Edward grew up in a poor family, first sold newspapers for a living: later he worked as a clerk in a grocery store, and his family depended on him for food for seven days, so he had to find a new job as an assistant librarian, and even though the wages were meager, he did not dare to quit, and it was only after eight years that he found the courage to start his own business, and surprisingly, he was able to develop his business with a loan of $50 into a net income of $20,000 a year, but unfortunately the good times didn't last long, and the bank in which he deposited his money failed. Failed, he not only lost all the property. He was also in debt of 16,000 dollars. He could not withstand such a blow, "I can't eat, I can't sleep," he said, "I began to have a strange disease, the cause of the disease is purely melancholy, one day I was walking on the side of the road fainted from then on can only lie down, the result is that the whole body is rotten, and finally even lying down is painful. At this point the doctor told me that I had about two weeks to live. I was so shocked that I had to write my will and lie down to die. This made worrying superfluous. I relaxed and rested for weeks with my eyes closed. Although I slept less than two hours a day, it was restful, and those wearying worries gradually disappeared, my appetite improved, and I began to gain weight.

"After a few more weeks, I could walk on crutches. Six weeks later I was able to go back to work. I used to make $20,000 a year, but now I'm happy to get a job for $30 a week. My job is to sell a type of fender, and I no longer regret the past or fear the future, but put all my time, energy, and enthusiasm into selling my work."

Edward Evans' career grew rapidly. Within a few years, he was the president of Evans Industries. Since then, his company has long dominated the New York stock market. If you go to Greenland, you will probably land at Evans Airport, named in his honor. But he would never have been as successful as he was if he hadn't learned to "live in complete independence today".

You probably remember the words of Snow White: "The rule here is that you can have jam tomorrow, and you could have jam yesterday. But no jam today." Most of us are the same way - fretting about tomorrow's jam and yesterday's jam, but refusing to spread today's jam thickly on the bread we're eating now.

Even the great French philosopher Montaigne made the same mistake. He said, "My life has been full of terrible misfortunes. And most of those misfortunes never happened." And so it is with my life and yours.

Dante said, "Think of a day that will never come again." Life is slipping by at an incredible rate. Today is the only time to be cherished."

That's what Laufer Thomas thinks, too. I recently spent a weekend at his farm. He had a frame on the wall of his radio station. In it was this verse:

This is the day the LORD hath made,

Let us be glad and rejoice in it.

John Loggins kept a stone on his desk with the inscription, "Today."

I don't have a stone on my desk, but I do have a verse taped upside down on my mirror, which I see every morning when I shave. It is the same poem that Dr. Osler used to keep on his desk, written by a very famous Indian dramatist, Kalidasha:

Hail to the dawn

Watch the day!

For it is the source of life.

......

Yesterday was but a dream,

and tomorrow is but a phantom.

But living in Imada,

can make yesterday a happy dream,

and tomorrow a hopeful phantom.

Look upon this day well,

and thus shalt thou salute the dawn.

If you do not want worry to invade your life, you should do as Dr. Osler says:

Separate the past from the future by an iron gate,

and live in complete independence of today.

Now ask yourself the following questions and answer them:

First, am I forgetting to live in the present and worrying only about the future, and am I pursuing the so-called "distant and marvelous rose garden"?

Second, do I often regret the past and make today more difficult?

Third, when I get up in the morning, do I decide to "seize these 24 hours"?

Fourth, if I "live today with complete independence". Would I get more out of life?

v. When should I start doing this? Next week ...... tomorrow ...... or today?

2. The "Universal Formula" for Clearing Worry

This formula once caused a dying patient sailing with brown wood to gain 40 kilograms.

Would you like a quick and effective way to get rid of your worries? That is, a way to read a few pages of a book and immediately put it into practice?

If you answered "yes", then allow me to introduce the method invented by Willie Carr. Carr was a brilliant engineer who pioneered the air conditioning industry and is now the head of the world-famous Carrill Corporation. He told me about it himself when we had lunch at the Engineers Club*** in New York.

"As a young man," Mr. Carell said, "I was working for the Buffalo Steel Flag Division in Buffalo, New York. One time I had to go to Crystal City, Missouri, to install a gas washer at a plant owned by the Pittsburgh Glass Company. It was a new type of machine, and after a lot of careful debugging and overcoming a lot of unexpected difficulties, the machine was finally ready to run, but the performance was not up to the specifications we expected.

"I was so shocked by my failure that I was struck with a stomachache and couldn't sleep for a long time.

Eventually, I decided that worrying wasn't going to solve the problem, and worked out a solution that turned out to be so effective that I've been using it for 30 years, and it's actually so simple that anyone can use it. There are three steps to it:

"In the first step, I candidly analyze the worst-case scenario I face; if it fails, my boss loses $20,000, and I'll probably lose my errand, but no one is going to lock me up or shoot me. That's for sure.

"In the second step, I encouraged myself to accept this worst possible outcome. I cautioned myself that there would be a blot on my history, but I might still find a new job. As for my boss, $20,000 was affordable, right down to paying the lab fee.

"After accepting the worst, I instead relaxed and felt a peace I hadn't felt in many days."

"Step three. I then began to devote my time and essence to the effort of improving the worst outcome.

"I tried to think of remedies to reduce the number of losses, and after a few trials, I realized that the problem could be solved if I used another five thousand dollars to buy some auxiliary equipment. Sure enough, after doing so, the company not only did not lose the twenty thousand dollars, but made fifteen thousand dollars."

"I'm afraid I could never have done that again if I had kept worrying. The greatest evil of worrying. It's that it destroys a person's ability to think, and worrying clutters the mind. When we force ourselves to accept the worst, we can put ourselves in a position where we can focus on the problem.

"This happened a long time ago, and because that approach worked so well, I used it for years. As a result, it's almost hard to have worries in my life anymore."

Why Carell's approach is so practical, psychologically speaking, is that it pulls us down from that gray cloud and puts our feet firmly on the ground. If we didn't have firm ground under our feet, how could we get things done?

Professor William James, the father of applied psychology, has been dead for 38 years, assuming he still rules. He would also have y appreciated hearing about this formula today, because he once said, "The ability to accept a fait accompli is the first step in overcoming any misfortune that comes along with it."

Lin Yutang said the same thing in his popular book The Art of Living. The Chinese philosopher said, "Mental calmness can withstand the worst and can renew your vigor."

This is so true. After accepting the worst. We have nothing more to lose. That means there's hope for everything lost to come back.

But there are thousands of people in life who ruin their lives with anger because they refuse to accept the worst and save something from the disaster. Instead of reconstructing their buildings, they become victims of depression.

Would you like to see an example of someone else applying Carell's formula? Here's an example from a student in my class who is currently an oilman in New York.

"I'm being blackmailed!" He said. "I can't believe this is happening. It's almost like a scene from a movie! Here's what happened. Some of the oil drivers in the oil company I supervised were secretly withholding the rationed oil they were supposed to give to their customers and selling it. One day, a man claiming to be a government investigator came to me and asked for a bonus. He said he had evidence of fraud by our delivery drivers. He threatened to forward the evidence to the local inspector if I didn't comply. That's all it took for me to realize that this illegal trade existed in the company.

"Of course it had nothing to do with me personally, but I knew there was a law that said the company had to take responsibility for the actions of its own workers. And, in case the case goes to court and gets into the papers, this bad reputation could ruin my business. I'm proud of my business - that's the foundation my father laid 24 years ago.

"I was so anxious and sick that I couldn't eat or sleep for three whole days and nights. I kept spinning my wheels on this thing. Should I pay that money - five thousand dollars - or should I say to the man, do what you want. I couldn't decide, and I had nightmares every day.

"Sunday night. I picked up a copy of "How to Stop Worrying," which I had gotten when I went to hear Carnegie speak publicly. I was reading the story of Willie Carrell and saw these lines: 'Face the worst.' So I asked myself, 'What's the worst that could happen if I don't pay and those blackmailers turn over the evidence to the D.A.'s office?'

"The answer is: 'Ruin my business - that's it. I won't be arrested, merely I'll be ruined by this.'

"So I said to myself, 'Well, the business, even though it's ruined, I can mentally live with this, and what happens next?'

"Well, after the business is ruined, maybe I have to find another job. It won't be hard, I'm familiar with the oil industry - a couple of big companies might hire me ...... I'm starting to feel a lot better. The apprehension that I had felt for three days and nights was beginning to dissipate. I was largely stabilized and certainly able to start thinking.

"I came to my senses and saw the next step - improving an unfavorable situation. As I pondered the solution, a brand new picture of the bureau unfolded before me. If I had told my lawyer about the whole situation, he might have found a new path that I hadn't thought of. I hadn't thought of this in the past, and it was entirely because I had just been worrying instead of thinking properly. I immediately made up my mind - to see my lawyer first thing the next morning - and then I got into bed. Slept soundly.

"The next morning. My attorney told me to go see the district attorney and tell him the whole story in its entirety. I did so, and when I did, I was surprised to hear the district attorney say that the blackmail had been going on for months, and that the man who claimed to be a "government official" was in fact a police fugitive. After three nights of worrying about whether or not I should hand over $5,000 to the career criminal, it was a huge relief to hear him say this.

"This experience taught me a lesson I will never forget. Now, whenever I'm faced with a dilemma that would cause me to worry, 'Willie Carell's old formula' comes in handy."

Al Hanley, who lived at 52 Wyndgemere Avenue, Manchester, Massachusetts, told me this story about himself in his own words on November 17H, 1948, at the Stella Grand Hotel in Boston:

"In the 1920s I got an ulcer in my stomach from worrying a lot. One night my stomach hemorrhaged and I was taken to the medical school hospital at the University of Chicago-Sibby, and my weight dropped from 170 to 90 pounds. My illness was so severe that the doctors would not even allow me to lift my head. The doctors thought I was hopelessly ill. I could only eat baking soda and a spoonful of something semi-liquid every hour. Every morning and evening the nurse inserted a rubber tube into my stomach to wash out the contents.

"This went on for months ...... Finally, I said to myself, 'You sleep, Hanley. If you have nothing to look forward to but waiting to die, you might as well make the best use of what's left of your life. You've always wanted to travel the world before you die, and if you still want to this yangpi blah blah blah, the only way to do it is to do it now.

"When I told the doctors I was going to travel the world, they were shocked. They were aghast. It was impossible, they warned, and they never had anything to say about it. If I traveled the world, I would be buried at sea. 'No, it won't', I said. 'I've promised my family and friends that I'll be buried in the cemetery of our old home in the state of Resca, so I'm going to take the coffin with me.'

"I bought a casket. Shipped it on a ship and agreed with the steamship company that in case I died, I would keep my body in a freezer bin until I returned to my old home. I embarked on my journey, mumbling the poem by Aurin Kelley:

Ah, before we fall into pieces of clay,

How can we fail to live up to the amusements of this life?

We will be reduced to mud, and sleep forever in the Yellow Springs,

No wine, no strings.

No wine, no strings, no kabuki, and no tomorrow.

I was already feeling better when I boarded the President Adams from Los Angeles and sailed east. Gradually, I stopped taking my medication and stopped washing my clothes. Soon afterward. Any food I could eat. -Even many peculiar local foods and condiments, things that others said would surely kill me if I ate them. Weeks passed, and I was even able to smoke long black cigars and drink a few glasses of old wine. I hadn't enjoyed myself like this in years. We ran into seasonal phoenixes in the Indian Ocean and typhoons in the Pacific, but I got a great deal of pleasure out of the adventure.

"I played games, sang songs, made new friends and talked until midnight at night on the boat. After arriving in China and India, I found myself going back to take care of my personal affairs, compared to the poverty and hunger I had seen in the East. I abandoned all my boring worries and felt very comfortable. Upon my return to the United States, I gained 90 pounds and almost completely forgot that I had had a stomach ulcer. Never in my life have I felt so comfortable and healthy."

Al Hanley told me that he found himself subconsciously applying Willie Carell's approach to overcoming worry.

"First, I asked myself, 'What's the worst that could happen?' The answer is: death.

"Second, I prepare myself for death. I had to, because I had no choice, and several doctors said there was no hope of seeing me.

"Third, I tried to find ways to improve the situation. The way to do that was, 'Try to enjoy this little bit of time that's left' ......" He continued, "If I had continued to worry when I got on the ship, there's no doubt I would have ended the trip in a coffin . But I relaxed completely, forgetting all my worries, and this mental equilibrium gave me a new vigor that saved my life."

So, the second rule is this: if you have worries, apply Willie Carell's All Souls Formula and do the following three things:

One, ask yourself, "What's the worst that could happen?"

Two, if you have to, you're ready for it.

Three, calmly find ways to improve the worst-case scenario.

3. Worry is the nemesis of longevity

We can use our hands for pesky daily tasks, but don't let them get to the liver, lungs, or blood.

One night a long time ago, a neighbor came to ring my doorbell and told our family to get cowpox to prevent smallpox. He was one of thousands of people throughout New York City who volunteered to ring the doorbell. Many frightened people stood in line for hours to get cowpox. Cowpox stations were located not only in all the hospitals, but also in firehouses, police stations, and large factories. About two thousand doctors and nurses were busy night and day planting cowpox for everyone. What was all the hustle and bustle about? It turned out that eight people in New York City had smallpox - two of them died - and eight million people