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Winterburn 1886 The Value of Vaccination
Winterburn 1886 The Value of Vaccination
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THE VALUE OF VACCINATION.
PUBLISHER'S NOTICE.
F. E. Boericke,
Publisher,
THE VALUE
Ur<
VACCINATION
A NON-PARTISAN REVIEW OF ITS
HISTORY AND RESULTS..
PHILADELPHIA :
F. E. BOERICKE,
HAHNEMANN PUBLISHING HOUSE.
1886.
\f\l7s7v
t^JSy >
TO MY
BY PERMISSION,
DEDICATED.
PREFACE.
long people
as are support it, they
taxed to have
the common
right of investigation. As a medical
dulgence of the
public and the tender mercies of
the critics, is
expressed the growth in knowledge of
the subject, on which it treats, extending over many
G. W. W.
Page.
Preface 5
Introduction, 9
nation, 55
Bibliography, 151
Appendices, 161
Index, 175
"He who only knows his own side of the case, knows little of
that." —
John Stuart Mill,
"I consider that the affirmation of facts is more powerful than the
assertions of men." —
Pascal.
"Persistent
misrepresentation of familiar facts must be set right.
If people are allowed to hear what is untrue repeated often enough
and confidently enough, they come, at last, to believe it, and that is
a
process, which one is bound to disturb." —
Pall Mall Gazette, August
16, 1883.
Introduction.
The
subject of Vaccination has engaged the atten
tion of a multitude of
minds, both great and small,
and its literature is as varied, in
quality and com
plexion, as one need wish to find. It is one of those
unfortunate topics, which seem to exasperate the
most equably-tempered men, and to
produce ebulli
tions of unreasonableness whenever and wherever
broached. Conceived in ignorance of the real na
ture of disease, and born of fanaticism which brooked
no
questioning, fostered in the beginning by femi
nine conceit and courtly perogative, and later
by
governmental patronage and the conservatism of
habit, it seems to have been so imbued with the
spirit of intolerance and arrogance, that, even now
in these modern days, when we pride ourselves on
the impartiality with which we discuss scientific
topics, every one who believes in vaccination looks
with a sort of pitying scorn upon any one who does
not. To doubtor discuss is, to their
minds, con
vincing, nay irrefutable evidence of an
impairment
of that mental balance which we all pride ourselves
in possessing.
2 (9)
10 INTRODUCTION.
CAL DOGMA.
(15)
16 INOCULATION.
Report
of the NewcastleDispensary, from its Foundation in
1777. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1878.
And yet, alas for human prescience, what was pro
claimed as the savior, proved to be the destroyer.
Probably, more than all other things combined, it
has contributed to keep smallpox alive, by constantly
disseminating the infection. The immediate deaths
from inocculation were one
per-cent.
Owing to the of
spread smallpox through inocu
lation, great fear of the disease had been produced,
so that, when Jenner
proclaimed vaccination as the
certain and unfailing prophylactic against this dis
order, there were multitudes, especially of the edu
cated and wealthy class, who were
ready to give
credence to the discovery.
Vaccinia (from vacca, cow) or the Cow-pox,
a
5
A case of alleged spontaneous cow-pox at Beaugency, in France.
6
Prof. Simonds, Royal Veterinary College, 1879.
22 ORIGIN OF GREASE.
sumption.
Two years later, in 1789, he vaccinated his own
son, then a year and a half old, with swine-pox; and
between that year and 1792, he repeatedly inoculated
him with small-pox. This son was always delicate
in health, and died in his twenty-first year, of pul
monary consumption, which many have claimed
was induced by the repeated inoculations.
8
Baron's Life of Jenner, Vol. II, page 122.
24 AMATEUR VACCINISTS.
because allied to it
ass, is infinitely more pernicious,
in being vitalized."
ineffectual effort to
Jenner had, in 1797, made an
ceivedas if
proven.
The Commons granted the £30,000. The Court
breathed easily, they were to be made
perfectly se
cure for life. To Jenner's high gratification, the
medical profession, overawed by the attitude of the
Court and the nobility, found it convenient to with
draw their opposition to the now triumphant method,
and to publicly indorse what they had previously
rejected.
This, in brief, is the history of the establishment
of vaccination as an accepted medical dogma. It
26 JENNER REWARDED.
SUBJECT.
If a small particle of the virus from a fully formed
vesicle of cow-pox be taken upon the point of a
lancet, and inserted by puncture beneath the cuticle
of a person who has never had smallpox nor been
previously vaccinated, certain phenomena will ap
pear in a definite order. If the person be in other
wise good health, no particular effects will be notice
able during the first forty-eight hours, except a
the in
by the eighth day, thatday week from
is the
and
sertion of the virus, it has become fully ripe,
while retaining the peculiar shape already noted,
Pre
it is pearl-like in color, round and plump.
now
the spots
Inchildren, after vaccination, when
have nearly healed, an erysipelatous redness occa
constitutional symptoms
slight, and the general
but little faith can be put in the protective
wanting,
If, however, the vesicle be
power of the operation.
constitutional symp
normal in appearance, and the
toms present and only briefer
in duration, the value
as a
smallpox measles;
as or
a disease
which, mild and gentle as its progress may
be, yet nevertheless now and then, like every other
exanthematous malady, asserts its character by an
1:i
Vaccina/ ion, its Value, and Alleged Dangers, page 93.
THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF VAC
CINAL VIRUS.
(horse-pox)
a large number of cases, and
furnished it to other
vaccinators. Acting on his
suggestion, King of
the
Spain, in 1804, ordered all the children in the Found
ling Hospital at Madrid to be vaccinated with goat-
pox. Jenner claimed that the
virus of these and
(36)
ORIGIN OF VACCINE. 37
terial :
Calf-Beaugency stock;
g.
h.
Calf-smallpox-cow-pox.
Now, if as Jenner declared, these various poxes
are really all one thing, and
simply derivations of
horse-grease, it can make little difference through
what animal it comes, provided such animals are
themselves free from disease. But here authori just
ties fail to agree. Drs. Drysdale,
Seaton, Badcock,
Ceely, Thiele, and Sonderland assert that
smallpox
SMALLPOX NOT VACCINIA. 41
says :
find that many medical men are under the false im
pression that all that we require to do is to inoculate
the heifer with smallpox matter, and thus get a sup
ply of vaccine lymph. This might become produc
tive of disastrous consequences. Smallpox inocula
tion of the heifer produces not vaccinia, but a modi
fied smallpox capable of spreading smallpox amongst
human beings by infection."18
17
M. Chauveau. Report of Committee of the Academic des Sciences.
18
London Daily Xews, February 17, 1877.
42 SPONTANEOUS COW-POX.
19
Dr. Charles Cameron, M.P.
THE METHODS OF VACCINATING.
20
Lectures on Inflammation.
VACCINIA AND LATENT GERMS. 47
the other.
In the case of infants, themselves apparently
healthy, there always arises the interesting inquiry,
whether there be any taint of syphilis in either
parent. Should there be even the slightest well-
grounded reason
believing there may be, vacci
for
nation should be postponed until the infant is six
months old. As hereditary syphilis nearly invari
measles typhus.
or
21
Of
42,277 deaths from variola, in England, during the ten years,
18o6— 1865, 10,223 were of children under one year of age. (Seaton.)
In the variolous epidemic of 1837-8, when 9,762 perished in Eng
is
of life, that is during the first three months, par
suitable to vaccination, for at that time the
ticularly
infant is free from the disturbing influence of teething,
and if the health is otherwise good and the vaccine
is selected with care, the probabilities are that the
child will pass through the vaccine-disorder in a
normal manner. Children vaccinated during den
tition often suffer
severely from diarrhoeal com
plaints. Frequently the tooth-making process is in
terfered with, and the teeth are imperfectly devel
oped, or are subject to early decay.
The chances of an adult taking smallpox are re
mote. Like measles, whooping-cough and scarlet
fever, smallpox is mainly a disease of childhood.
After the tenth year the probabilities of taking it
rapidly lessen, and it is hardly worth while under
going the risks of vaccination, to ward off a danger
so problematical. I know I am not in accord with
most vaccinists in this conclusion, but the facts upon
which it is based are admitted by all.
II. The vaccine22 to be used should not only be
free from all taint, but, like Caesar's wife, above sus
picion. The vaccinator should make assurance that
the "lymph" that he introduces into the system of
the helpless babe before him is from a perfectly
healthy animal, or if it is humanized virus, that it is
from a child of perfectly
healthy stock. The vacci-
22
The origin of the word vaccine is thus described: "Dr. Odier, of
Geneva, has baptized the new disease, la vaccine, or
vaccinia; rejecting
as absurd the name of the English,variola vaccina." —Br.
Medical and
Pearson, in
Physical Journal; Vol. Ill page 100" 1800
VACCINE ACCIDENTS. 51
nator has no
right
to trust to chance in this matter
of virusation. It involves consequences too
perva
sive and long-lasting for a
happy-go-lucky style of
selection. The difficulties of the problem offer no
23
The following communication from Dr. T. S.
Hopkins, of Thom-
asville, Ga., concerning the results which have followed the use of
"patent solid lymph," is published for general information:
"Our town authorities have employed a physician to vaccinate all
persons who present themselves for the purpose. The virus was
pro
cured from the New England Vaccine
Company, Chelsea, Mass., as
'bovine matter.' The result has been fearful.
Nearly every one
vaccinated has suffered severely from Erythema or
Erysipelas, the
arm swollen from shoulder to
wrist, and the point of puncture pre
senting the appearance of a sloughing ulcer, discharging freely sani-
ous pus.
Many of the sufferers have been confined to bed, with high
fever, from five to ten days, requiring the constant application of
poultices to the arm, and a free use of morphia for the relief of pain.
I deem it my duty to inform you of the result here from the matter
used and from whence it came. It came in cones, each cone said to
contain enough to vaccinate one hundre
persons, at a cost of one
dollar per cone. Those who have tried it tell me they would much
prefer to have smallpox," From the National
—
lished a calf farm, and from this source, the city and
surrounding towns have been supplied for eight or
nine years. Just what is the genesis of this vaccine
I have been unable to discover. It is said to be
Beaugency, but I am inclined to think it is another
instance of smallpoxing the cow.
24
"What renders the cow-pox virus so extremely singular, is, that
the person who has been thus affected is forever after secure
from the infection of the smallpox. —
Jenner.
25
During the recent
epidemic, a man 89 years of age was admitted
to the Wynberg Smallpox Hospital, and it was the fifth occasion of
his being attacked by variola.—Port Elizabeth Telegraph, Dec. 9, 1882.
PROTECTION THROUGH VACCINATION. 57
27
Parliamentary Vaccination Committee of 1871.
28 Committee of 1871.
Parliamentary Vaccination
60 DEATH-RATE OF SMALLPOX.
PER CENT.
DEATHS.
1700-79 42,145 ;
7,555 17.64
In
Newcastle-upon-Tyne 2616 cases, from 1777-
1877, caused 428 deaths, 16.3 per cent.29
or
is now
freely admitted to conduce to the intensity
of the disease, it is probable that natural smallpox,
uninfluenced by inoculation, would have shown a
lower death-rate.
Smallpox during the fifty years prior to inocula
tion, that is during the latter portion of the seven
teenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century,
1701-1800 3000
1801-1840 600
1841-1854 . . . 305
Under Compulsory
Year. Vaccination.
1855-1871 223
1872-1882 156
Sir
Lyon Playfair observes: "These great reduc
tions in the rate of
smallpox mortality I believe to be
due wholly to vaccination. Sanitation is not the cause,
for it would diminish all other diseases likewise;
but these have only diminished six per cent., whereas
smallpox has diminished eighty per cent, in chil
dren under five."
It is hardly fair to compare the mortality of small
spect.
The
Smallpox Hospital, London, is believed to be
a fair of English experience.32 The
representative
number of cases of
smallpox after vaccination has
steadily risen from about 5 per cent, at the begin
ning of this century to 44 per cent, in 1845, 64 per
cent in 1855, 78 per cent, in 1865, 90
per cent, in
1875, and is now about 96 per cent, of the whole
number of cases admitted. The residual 4 per cent.
is mainly composed of infants under one year of
age, who on account of tainted constitutions, or the
nomadic character of their parents have the
escaped
official lancet. They the waifs and strays of
are
:i-
M arson.
68 SMALLPOX AFTER COW-POX.
1806 48 110
1807 29 122
1808 62 108
1809 66 106
1810 4 106
AVERAGE .
63 111
37
(r. F. Kolb, of the Eoyal Statistical Commission of Bavaria.
74 VACCINATION INEFFICIENT.
Men
are prone to see
things much as they imagine
they ought to be. In a controversial question few
can be
magnanimous, and fewer still impartial. As
showing the different manner of looking at this sub
ject, I present side by side two statements, made by
reputable men. Which shall we credit?
38
"The deaths from smallpox have assumed the proportions of a
plague. Over 10,000 lives have been sacrificed during the past year
in England and Wales. In London, 5641 deaths have occurred since
Christmas. Of 9,392 patients in the London Smallpox Hospitals, no
less than 6,854 had been vaccinated, i. e., nearly 73 per cent. Taking
the mortality at 17J per cent, of those attacked, and the deaths this
year in the whole country at 10,000, it will follow that more than
122,000 vaccinated persons have suffered from smallpox! This is an
alarming state of things. Can we greatly wonder that the opponents
of vaccination should point to such statistics as an evidence of the fail
ure of the system? It is necessary to speak plainly on this important
matter."— Lancet, July 15, 1871.
76 LEACROFT VS. BROWNING.
ing Vaccination.
London, 1839. "The questions
already stated bring us to those which regard
the completeness of Vaccination as a
preventive
sir henry Holland's opinion. 77
can
regret it more than myself that their result
proved unfavorable to
compulsory vaccination.
and every friend of
humanity feels the constraint of
being compelled to resign a
prophylactic operation,
the inventor of which is called
yet to-day one of the
greatest benefactors of mankind, and the real practi
cal effect of which has to be
placed among Hart-
man's illusions."39
Having thus been forced to admit that vaccination
does not prevent
smallpox in the vaccinated, let us
now determine what is its
power in the mitigating
disease. There are two points to be here considered :
the ratio of deaths from
smallpox, and the amount
ofdisfigurement in those who recover; the latter be
ing taken as a mark of the severity of the attack.
On the first point, Mr. Marson, who has for
thirty-
five years had charge of the
Smallpox Hospital at
London, is excellent authority. During that time
he has had more than seventeen thousand cases of
smallpox under his immediate personal supervision,
and has had ready means of
knowing the exact par
ticulars of the entire English
hospital experience.
He has found, while the unvaccinated
among these
cases have died at the rate of
thirty-five deaths to
one hundred cases, the ratio
among the vaccinated
has only been about six to a hundred. But what is
still more conclusive, as shown by this concensus of
cases, is that the modifying power of vaccination
3. Vaccinated —
«.
Having one vaccine cicatrix 7.73
b. Having two vaccine cicatrices 4.70
c. Having three vaccine cicatrices 1.95
d. Having four or more vaccine cicatrices .... 0.55
*°
Seaton on Vaccination. Reynolds' System of Medicine. Vol. I
page 168.
SMALLPOX OBLITERATES VACCINATION. 81
42
It is but fair to say that many Public Vaccinators protest against
this large area of scars as necessary, useful or expedient. One of them
in writing to the British Medical Journal, Dec. 9, 1882, says: "This
practice, though supported by statistics, is pure fallacy, and has done
more to make vaccination a bugbear than all the outcry of the anti-
vaccinators. I believe an excessive amount of inflammation, as is
caused by a large area of pustules, does more to damage the protect
ive quality of the vaccination than to improve it. Vaccine virus is
known to be capable of unlimited auto-multiplication. The lymph
taken from a case in which one small pustule only has been devel
oped, gives as good results as that taken from large and more inflamed
pustules."
84 CLASSIFICATION OF CASES.
Cases.
With Good Marks —
one mark .■
1,408
two marks 1,105
three marks 806
four marks or more 768
No marks 3,139
Total
19,779
1871 64 142
1872 314 64
1873 139 39
Total.
Vaccinated, 784
Unvaccinated, 131
*
915
Divided as follows : —
Discreet cases —
Vaccinated, 499
Unvaccinated, 22
521
(Majority of vaccm.-fted, 477.)
Prof. Deschere.
SMALLPOX IN HOMERTON HOSPITAL. 87
Vaccinated, . 30
Unvaccinated, 10
40 915
(Majority of vaccinated, 20.)
Deaths of Vaccinated; 102
" "
Unvaccinated, 70
172
(Majority of vaccinated, 32.)
Summary.
Deaths
Cases. Deaths, per cent.
of cases.
Discreet —
Vaccinated, 499 2 .4
Unvaccinated, 22 0 .0
Confluent —
Vaccinated, 30 30 100.0
Unvaccinated, 10 10 100.0
'
vaccinated. unvaccinated.
Discreet
177 2 322 0 20 0 2 0
Smallpox.
Confluent
72 20 183 50 80 49 19 11
Smallpox.
Malignant 9 9 21 21 8 8 2 2
Smallpox.
44
British Medical Journal, April 14, 1883.
88 VACCINISATION VS. VACCINATION.
Vaccinated. Unvaccinated.
—
There died of Smallpox in last century in w
■•
a
population of
THREE TRUSSIA
BERLIN, 174G. 17 OX
AGE-CLASSES.
0-1 year . . .
1,386
"
5-10 7,120 15 2.1 44
...
1,493
'
10-20 13,360 1 0.1 4
...
2,626
above 20 years 50,960 0 0 0
. .
7,425
1871. —
In Berlin, Duisburg, and Hamburg among a
population
vaccinated, there died of smallpo
AGE-CLASSES.
0-1 year . . .
18,917 1.038 54.6 992 93
"
1-5 ...
69,176 1,189 17.2 3,586 143
"
5-10 ...
71,011 243 3.4 3,933 46
"
10-20 ...
144,422 172 1.2 6,072 28
above 20 years . .
519,043 2,443 5.7 15,946 222
*7 Vv\ J. M.D.
Collins,
94 smallpox a hundred years ago.
That this
was not a
solitary instance, is shown by
the following quotation from a pamphlet published
by Isaac Massey, apothecary to Christ's Hospital, in
London, in the year 1723: "The children of Christ's
Hospital are
generally a flux body of about nine
hundred or more; and I affirm that in that
place
not one out of
fifty have died these last twenty
years of that distemper, and but one the last nine
years of the smallpox, although near six hundred
have been constantly in the house, and I believe
some hundreds have been down of it." Dr. Wag-
staffe, writing in the previous year of the same epi
demic, states that the fatality amounted to hardly
one in a hundred. If such a mild epidemic should
SMALLPOX NOW. 95
occur in this
year of our Lord, 1885, how many there
would be who would exclaim, Behold and see what
a
goodly thing vaccination is.
Very different was the epidemic at Birmingham,
England, which culminated in 1874, and which
called forth the remark, "Smallpox has lost its usual
respect for vaccination." Dr. Alfred Hill, Medical
Officer of Health for Birmingham, gives the total
number of cases of smallpox during this epidemic,
as 7,706, of which 6,795 had been vaccinated, 830
not vaccinated, and 81 doubtful. There had been
1,270 deaths, of which 840 had been vaccinated, 404
not vaccinated, and 26 doubtful.48 The 830 not vac
cinated, included 475 from the workhouse, mainly
infants under one
year of age, and too young, too
weak, or too diseased to
undergo vaccination. The
81 doubtful persons claiming to be vacci
cases were
48
Daily News, August 25, 1875.
96 SMALLPOX DEATH-RATES COMPARED.
DEATHS
VACCI
PER
BATE. AUTHORITY. CASES. DEATHS
NATED.
CENT.
H 552 17.3
1881 Deptford (McCombie) 3,185 2,654
5
48,169 34,526 9,048 18.78
49
The Amount of Protection Afforded by Vaccination against Small
pox. London, 1883.
VACCINATED INDIANS DIE OF SMALLPOX. 97
la lenner, is to occupy a
position that cannot possibly
be maintained."50
50
Address to the Reichstag.
98 SMALLPOX MORTALITY STATISTICS.
an
average per year of 526. In the five years 1868-
72, there were 11,543 deaths, or an average of 2,308
per annum. Such conjuring with figures is mis
leading, and therefore dishonest. Smallpox is not
rapidly increasing in virulence, although it must be
admitted that recent epidemics have shown an unex
pected malignancy.
Dr. Charles Cameron, M.P., the able champion of
vaccination in the House of Commons, in a letter to
the London Times, in May, 1882, said: "Since 1836
our statistics have been compiled so as to enable us
to compare the mortality not merely in smallpox
occurring in all classes of vaccinated persons at dif
ferent periods, but in each separate class of vacci
nated persons —
51
Lancet, Nov. 12, 1881.
100 AN ARMY OF VACCINATORS.
52
Lord Lyttleton, in the House of Lords,
April 12, 1853, showed
on
ernment, a sum
aggregating upwards of ten millions
of dollars has been spent to accomplish what? To —
"
remarks, that a true account of the plague cannot
be kept without the account of other diseases."
It is
interesting similarity between the
to note the
fluctuations in the death-rate ofplague and small
pox. Compare the table on
page 132 with this,
showing the mortality from plague.
Mortality from Plague in London, 1604—1651.
Year. Deaths. Year. Deaths.
much as to guess."
GENERAL
SMALLPOX DEATHS. DEATH-RATE
PER THOUSAND.
1851 . . .
1,062 23.4
1855 . . .
1,039 24.3
Average . . .
1,051 23.9
1871 . . .
7,912 2.46
1877 . . .
2,551 21.9
Average . . .
4,153 23.6
58
At the Conference on Animal Vaccination, in London, December,
59
Here are the figures :
Smallpox Deaths in London.
1851-60 7,150
1861-70 8,347
1871-80 15,551
The deaths in England from the last three great epidemics of small
pox were :
Deaths.
1857-9 14,244
1863-5 20,059
1 870-2 44,840
Dr. W. B. Carpenter, M.P., excuses the heavy mortality in the
last epidemic by saying that never before had smallpox swept so ter
ribly over the country. The protective power of vaccination which
is only useful when the danger is absent is of singularly little value.
SMALLPOX IN INDIA. Ill
villages affected."60
Again, following year, the same idea is en
in the
forced: "It must not be forgotten that the amount of
smallpox depends not only on the proportion of un
vaccinated people in a country, but also, and prima
rily, on the sanitary condition of the people and their
60 Measures in, India, 1879-80, Vol. XIII, 1881.
Report on Sanitary
112 lord Shaftesbury's opinion.
surroundings, by these
and the influence exercised
elements on their general health and
resisting power
against epidemics The whole history of In
dian smallpox appears to show that it is essentially
an
epidemic disease, and, as such, it ought to admit
of mitigation by ordinary sanitary procedure, like
other maladies of the same nature."61
The last proposition that I set out to prove was
that the less disfigurement now from smallpox, shows
that it has been mitigated by the practice of vaccina
tion. I have endeavored to find evidence that small
there is not a
particle.
It would seem then that it is to sanitation alone
that we can turn for any real solution of this prob
lem. Lord Shaftesbury, whose death has but re
•
infantile mortality. 113
mote.
The persons who die from the immediate effects
of a vaccination are inconsiderable, when taken in
relation to the millions who are vaccinated. Still,
taken by themselves, they make quite a ghastly list,
extending down from the beginning of the century,
and hailing from every clime. Dr. William Rowley,
F.R.C.P., London, Physician to Her Majesty's Lying-
in Hospital, Lecturer on the Theory and Practice of
Medicine, wrote in 1805: "Out of 504 persons vacci
nated, 75 died from the consequences. There is no
question here of supposition, or calculation of prob
it is truth. It is evidence which seems to
ability —
Vacctnal-Syphilis.
The existence of vaccinal-syphilis was until re
cently most strenuously denied. Says Simon (1857),
"
if syphilis could be diffused
by the vaccine lymph
of children with an hereditary taint of that disease,
this possibility must long ago have been made evi
dent on a scale far too considerable for question;"63
and this was unquestionably the opinion of almost
all competent practitioners down to that date; al
64
Confederate States Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. I, page 104,
1864.
65
Address at the Calf-lymph Medical Congress, by Charles Came
ron, M.D., M.P., 1879.
66
Abnormal Phenomena accompanying and
following Vaccination in the
Confederate A rmy.
BALLARD ON VACCINAL-SYPHILIS. 121
"
seen
syphilitic resulting from vaccination.
affections
Considers the assertion, that syphilis has been com
municated by the lymph, of very little worth;
though he admits that Ricord and Hutchinson are
men of scientific
position." Sir William Gull, M.D.,
"had never seen vaccinal-syphilis, and thought it
would be the most insane thing to give up vaccina
tion. Hunter, and others, maintained that syphilis
could not be communicated by vaccination. Thinks
Ricord's conclusion a very hasty one." Dr. West,
as
Physician to the Children's Hospital, had seen
HUTCHINSON ON VACCINAL-SYPHILIS. 123
"
70
All the above from the words Parliamentary Committee," page
121, line 19, condensed from testimony before a Committee of the
House of Commons, 1871.
124 HUTCHINSON ON VACCINAL-SYPHILIS.
71
The Anti- Vaccinator, December 16, 1872.
72
Medical Times and Gazette, P'ebruary 1, 187 .
TROUSSEAU ON VACCINAL-SYPHILIS. 125
"
I think that contamination by vaccine
syphilitic
lymph is, by no means, an unusual occurrence, and
that it is very generally overlooked because people
do not know either when, or where to look
for it. large proportion of the cases
I think that a
75
Medical Examiner,
May 24, 1877.
76
of Clinical Surgery.
Illustrations
77
Vaccination, its Fallacies and Eri/s, page 13.
78
From a letter to the Homoeopathic Practitioners of Great Britain,
Philadelphia, August, 1878.
SIMON ON VACCINAL-SYPHILIS. 127
syphilis."80
In 1880, A. G. Springsteen, M.D., of Cleveland,
Vice-Eresident of the National Eclectic Medical As
sociation, said: "No one, who has given the subject
the least consideration, doubts that impurities may
81
be conveyed in this manner." Sir Thomas Watson,
father
readily sympthise with, and even applaud a
in his
who, with the presumed dread or misgiving
79
Text-Book of Medicine. 1879.
80
British MedicalJournal, December 13, 1879.
81
Xew York Medical Tribune, January, 1880.
128 DESJARDINS ON VACCINAL-SYPHILIS.
leprosy in Hawaii.
In 1883, Ch. Pigeon, M.D., of Fourchambault,
addressed a Deputies of the French
letter to the
Chamber, proposed bill upon compul
relative to the
sory vaccination, in which he speaks of having then
under his care some cases of vaccinal syphilis.
This chronological record of invaccinated syphilis
is brief but conclusive. If need be, it could be
swelled to a portly volume. Upwards of nine hun-
82
Nineteenth Century. June, 1880.
83
Journal d' Hygiene, Aug. 25, 1881. Edited by Docteur de Pietra
Santa, a scientific gentleman, of eminent reputation.
84
Address before the Eclectic Medical Association of Connecticut.
A CASE OF VACCINAL-SYPHILIS. 129
case can be
indubitably sustained, the mind realizes
the probably thousands, which have been overlooked
or ignored. My own dispensary experience leads
me to aver that a systematic, impartial, Govern
85
Since the above was written Dr. Farr has died. His memory de
serves atribute of respect from all who are interested in sanitation.
Although a believer in vaccination, the labors of his long official life
furnish a repertory of statistical facts, which show its futility as at
present practiced.
A Table of Mortality in England a
SHOWING
The Deaths from Smallpox and Syphilis; also the number of Suc
Compiled from the Reports of the Kegistrar-General, from
Registration, by W. T. Stephen, 61 Victoria Eoad,
1843 16,332,228
1844 16,535,174 No official From 1843 to 1846 in
account of
29,522 | not
1845 16,739,13(5 (6 vears) \ analysed
1846 16,944,092 vaccina
1841-50
tions before
1847 1852. 4,227 246
17,150,018 29
1848 6,903 398
17,356,882 (4 y
4,644 264
1849 17,564,656 184
4,665 263
1850 17,773,324
* From Uth Annual Report of Local Government Board, p. 346.
smallpox and syphilis. 133
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D
Successful Deaths
Deaths from
Vaccinations from Deaths
Small
Years. Population. at the ex from
Smallpox per
pense of the In Periods. Smallpox pox
Million
Poor Rates.
Pop.
VACCINATION ACTS.
1867.— T
1840.— To extend the practise of Vaccination.
1871. —
T
1841.— To amend the Vaccination Act.
1853.— Vaccination made Compulsory.
1874.—T
1861.— To facilitate prosecutions.
VACCINAL- PHTHISIS. 135
Vaccinal-Phthisis.
It is alleged that phthisis has greatly increased
since vaccination, and in consequence of it. This
is totally denied by some authorities, and others,
such as Mr. Seaton, while admitting that tuberculo
sis has greatly increased, say that children, who
would have died of smallpox, are saved
by vaccina
tion until adolescence, to die ofconsumption. Now
it is evident that whatever may be true of phthisis,
this last assertion cannot be true. For we have seen
OF DEATH.
1 I 1880 over
1850-4 1855-9.1S60-4 1S65-9 1S70-4 1875-9 187 S-80 1850.
Smallpox* ....
279 199 190 i 147 433J 81 40
Tabes Mesenterica 264 261 272 315 298 330 340 29 per cent.
Skin Disease . . .
11 15 15 17 .18 23 23 109 per cent.
Bronchitis f .... 1,016 1,358 1,658 1,839 2,105 2,464 2,505 144 per cent.
Total 6 causes . .
1,650 2,029 2,399 2,6S0 2,973:
3,433 3,502 112 per cent.
*
Smallpox is an epidemical disease, and there has occurred but
one great outbreak (1871-72), 18 years subsequent to the introduction
of enforced vaccination, and four years after the further and more
stringent act.
f Bronchitis, though not, perhaps, directly inoculable, is often ob
served by intelligent medical authorities to supervene upon, or soon
after, vaccination; and it is obvious that diminished constitutional
vitality will render recovery from any disease more precarious ; hence
PROGRESSIVE INFANTILE MORTALITY. 139
As
showing how infant mortality on the whole
has steadily increased during these same periods, I
quote from the Parliamentary Return, No. 433, 1878,
the following statistics: —
Infants
died, 1847, 62,619
Out of a' population of 17,927,609.
Vaccination obligatory 1854—67
— —
in the same
Smallpox —
in 1777.
Report of the Newcastle Dispensary, from its Foundation
B6
either, for people take it, and die of it. And if, upon
the other hand, we adopt horse-virus, there is con-
142 ceely's experiments.
87
The following is from the Lyon Medicate, of June 22, 1 879 : "On
April 26 and 28, the local doctors vaccinated with this lymph (animal
virus) thirty-eight children, all aged less than twenty months.
Whilst they were awaiting the incubation of the vaccine pustules,
they soon perceived that they had inoculated one of the most horrible
of maladies, and that they were the involuntary authors of a real
massacre of the innocents. The gentleman who sent these particu
lars to The Gazette a" Italia betook himself to San Quirico. He saw
the victims. He observed vast phlegmons laying bare the muscles
and penetrating into the joints, accompanied by eclamptic symptoms.
To him it appeared very probably to be an epidemic of glanders."
See also The Gazette d' Italia, for May 21 1879. The disaster occurred
,
88 "
M. Touissaint vaccinated a cow in an advanced stage of tuber
culosis with lymph absolutely pure. The vesicles progressed nor
mally, and with the lymph obtained from them he vaccinated differ
ent animals, all of whom subsequently became tuberculous. The
would at the present time be eagerly sought after, being, like so many
of their species, tuberculous, would be great ; and it would seem in con
be greater than those
sequence that the dangers of animal vaccination may
which are supposed to be avoided by having recourse to the
of human,
cow." 3[edical Times and Gazette, Sept. 3, 1881.
—
144 VACCINE A MENACE TO HEALTH.
This system of
compulsory vaccination is founded
upon formulary too preposterous for a moment's
a
could be in
body iscomposed— to believe, if they
duced to study this subject, as I have done, unbiased
by the fanatical clamor of a few, or the specious rea
Paris, 1860.
Joseph Adams, M.B.C.S., M.D., F.L.S., Observations on Morbid
Poisons. London, 1807.
An Inquiry into the Laws of Epidemics, with Remarks on the
Plans lately proposed for Exterminating the Smallpox. London,
1809.
Vaccine Inoculation, in Medical and Physical Journal, Vol. ix,
page 309.
Jonathan Badcock, A Detail of Experiments Confirming the Power of
Cow-pox. Brighton, 1840.
Thomas Baker, Esq., The Value of Vaccination. London, 1871.
The Vaccination Laws. Wokingham, 1874.
Thomas Graham Balfour, M.D., The Protection against Small
pox afforded by Vaccination, in Medico- Chirurgical Transactions,
Vol. xxxv.
Leipzig, 1882.
152 BIBLIOGRAPHY.
don, 1863.
Parliament (England), Eeport respecting Dr. Jenner's Pe
tition. London, 1802.
Parliamentary Ataccination Committee, Report. London, 1871.
M. de Paul, M.D., etc., Rapport de I' Academie Imperiale de Medicine
sur les Vaccinations pendant I'Annee, 1864. Paris, 1865, et seq.
Experiences faites d I' Academie Imperiale de Medicine croec le Cow-
pox ou Vaccine Animate, 1866. Paris, 1867.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 157
Dukinfield, 1870.
Can Disease Protect Health f London, 1879.
Royal Jennerian Society, Report. London, 1806, etseq.
Royal Jennerian Institution, Report. London, various years.
Sacco, Trattato die Vaccinazione. Milan, 1831.
De Vaccinal. Necessitate Medicin. Milan, 1832.
Samuel Scofield, M.D., A Practical Treatise on Vaccina or Cow-pox.
New York, 1810.
Valentine Seaman, M.D., An Account of the Introduction of Vacci
nation or Kine-Pock Inoculation into New York. New York, 1802.
Edward Cator Seaton, M.D., etc., Smallpox and Vaccination. Lon
don, 1853.
On the Protective and Modifying Powers of Vaccination. London,
1857.
Handbook of Vaccination. London, 1868.
John Simon, F.R.S., Papers Relating to Vaccination. London, 1857.
Inflammation, in Holmes' Surgery. 1881.
Contagion, in Quain's Dictionary of Medicine, 1883.
158 BIBLIOGRAPHY.
I.
II.
The Vaccination of Immigrants.
When there is an outbreak of
smallpox in the United States, it is
frequently ascribed to the presence of unvaccinated immigrants, and
quarantine is said to be defective. It so happens, however, that im
migrants are carefully vaccinated, and often re-vaccinated, as will be
seen by Dr. Merkel's statement, above ; but it is not
unlikely, through
overcrowding on shipboard, aggravated by vaccination, and un
wholesome quarters on shore, they are peculiarly liable to variolous
disease. The following letter, describing the painful treatment to
which immigrants are subjected, is from a layman. While not
agreeing with some of its harsh expressions, I give it place here, as
a picturesque description of an every-day occurrence. It is needless
to say, cabin passengers are exempted from this brutal imposition.
S.S. "Adriatic."
VACCINATED.
C S. Murray,
Surgeon.
14th April, 1883.
PASS.
States.
the arm, and cut and cross-cut the skin, and then, after
rapidly stretching and the incisions with his thumbs,
closing
gave the wretch his ticket and passed him on. Such was
the ordinance of vaccination a
sight not to be
—
forgotten.
A crowd of hundreds passiug forward to prostrate their
conscience or manhood, or lack of them, at the shrine of
the most outrageous humbug of these latter days! A
VACCINATION OF IMMIGRANTS. 167
mixed crowd of big and little, fat and lean, dirty and clean,
reputable and disreputable, sober and drunken, healthy
and diseased, all ground down to the dead level of vacci
nated. There nothing
was in
common among them save
III.
Vaccination of Immigrants.
Last week the lad arrived, but he had, with others, been
and he
compelled to submit to vaccination on shipboard,
now lies at death's door from the effect of the use of im
are at least human, and their lives should not be left at the
the shafts
this state of public feeling, ought to remember that
they have caused to be directed against
the public may at any
(169)
170 infection and disinfection.
ing the dreaded poison in his clothes and in his very breath.
"Under these circumstances it would seem
opportune to
sidering that variola, like all other diseases, can also break
out spontaneously. Nevertheless, both doctors and patients
cling fondly to this belief in a volatile contagion : the doc
tors because it frees them from the
necessity of investigating
the genuine causes of the disease ; the patients because indi
viduals (like nations) prefer to seek the causes of their suf
ferings in their neighbors, their owTn sweet body being quite
incapable of generating such loathsome disease.
"Thus indolence and amour
propre are the chief support
of this popular belief. Unfortunately, this dogma can
who know how to keep their skins clean and their blood
a proper life."
pure, and by leading
APPENDIX C.
The following editorial from the New York Tribune, March 18,
1884, will apply just as well to smallpox, and will be instructive
reading during the next smallpox scare.
(172)
WHAT TO DO ABOUT ANIMAL DISEASE. 173
that there is no
pleuro-pneumonia in the
Atlantic States. It would be strange, if there were not,
with frequent
our cattle importations from the infected fields
stamped out," but do
"
of Europe. Let what there may be
it in sensible,
a business-like way.
If the few States, claimed to be infected, are not deemed
proposed new
"
of Waltham, small-
Adams, Dr.,
Bayard on smallpox after vac-
Lalf-lymph, 39. —
, spontaneous, 21.
Cameron, Charles, smallpox
deaths among the vacci from vaccination,l 1 5.
nated, 99. Dangers
of vaccination, 35, 144.
—
—
on vaccinal virus, 42.
,
Daremberg on inoculation, 17.
—
in Boston, Mass., 16. Kratz, O., on vaccinal-syphilis,
—
in second century, 17. 120.
—
introduced by Lady Mary
Wortley Montagu, 15. John, on vaccinal
—
made criminal, 19. Leacroft,
accidents, 75.
—
Browning, 75.
vs.
—
statistics, 67.
30. —
, smallpox
after vaccination in,
Introduction, 9. 74.
Invaccinated leprosy, 122, 128. —
,
deaths among the vaccinated
—
Jenner, 56.
vs nation in, 70.
—
Sir
William, on vaccinal- Marson, J. F., comparative
syphilis, 122. death-rate among vaccinated
Jones, Joseph, on vaccinal- and unvaccinated, 79.
syphilis, 120. —
, death-rate from
smallpox, 82.
INDEX. 179
Marson, J.
F., inoculation, 18. Dispensary report,
—
, "Jenner's
estimate", 57. Newcastle
140.
on
vaccinal-syphilis, 122. Newton, J. E., on vaccinal-
—
grease, 22.
ley, brings inoculation to
—
the words "vaccine" and
vaccine, 37.
—
vaccination, 45.
Phenomena of vaccination, 27.
Munn, S. B., on vaccinal-syphi
lis, 128. Phipps, James, vaccinated, 23.
Phthisis causedby vaccination,
135.
180 INDEX.
,
inefficient vaccination, 100.
Putnam's experiments, 38. —
vaccinal-syphilis, 123.
,
contagiousness of smallpox,
,
cination, 30. —
,
a case
of, 129, 148.
Sutton, Daniel and Eobert, —
Spencer, A. G.
Springsteen, Vital statistics in United States,
Trousseau, Sir
Prof. A. 65.
Thomas Watson, Drs. West,
Whitehead, Prof. Alexander on vaccinisation,
Wilder, 118-128. Warlomont 88.
Vaccinal virus, 36. Watson, Sir Thomas, on small
Vaccination a substitute for in poxing the calf, 141.
oculation, 15. —
vaccinal syphilis, 127.
—
Vesicle, the
vaccine, 28. Wyld, Geo., on smallpoxing the
Viborg on smallpoxing the cow, cow, 41.
37.
Vicarious mortality, law of, 101. constant
a
quality, 101.
Virus, vaccinal, 36. Zymosis
—
and cleanliness, 108.
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