The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-02-25 00:00:00

RESULTS OF RE-VACCINATION.

On the modes and results of re•vac?,ination, Mr,
Robert Ed* of 63, Sloane-Arent, London, writing to
The Times, rematka

In estimating the results of any mode ef vacchaation, It
must be taken for granttd that so very energetic an or eat
as pure vaccine 11 mph cannot be forcibly Introduced Into
the human body (as in the operation of vaccination) with-
out leaving some traces at the poin's of entrance. General
experience fully endorses this opinion, and It is well under.
stood that the entire and immediate fading away of all
marks fridn the arm after re-vaccination, whir ut the pro-
duction of any retries, itching, or ather local disturbance,
generally shows that the lymph has not reached its desired
end—in flack has really failed to " take.'

Re-vacclnathin mutt, therefore, primarily be thus tested
In order to prove Its become or failure. And the operation
mint be tegarind as, at least, of questionable eflimcy an the
absence of such local witness.

The persons operated upon Include some of all ranks, er-
upt the very poor. 1 heir ages have range I from 10 to 65
The evitience is, in fact, gathered from the ordinary eon of
medical practice, and come imently offers a cowl criterion
of the position o.cupied by the public, comprhed within the
deficed units, with ri specie to protection against small-pox
or the reverse. The numhers are shill iinntly high to measure
the value of any mcde of vaccination esc:usively adopted
towards them. WI thoht r ',tending to the severer stet'. ticel
anal) OS of there Caere, I lielieve that a fair average accuracy
may be accredited to tt e few notes 1 shall append.

In all this considerable rumba' of persons, 400, there have
not been more than one or two failures to take V. and even
these are doubtful, happening In domestic servants, who
were not seen for wens days after the vaccination Toe
vesicatlng promn may therefore, for all practical lurponem,
be considered obtenutey certain.
Wren adopted with the strip of adhesive platter, and spot
of blister ointment, the skin of the arm Is gently and quite
painlessly pret aced, and the complete operation in next
morolog performed without the nes of the lance', or the
appearance of a drop of blood. Whether It be attributable
to this or not. it is most certain that in no single Instance
have there occurred those btd elf rats which are now and hen
the result of ordinary re vaccination. At the writ, nothing
more than a general meauf,e, and sense of cot beteg quite
well, have formel the symptoms of constitutional up;et ; and
it bias never happrned to me to too the produc.fon of
oh croons ad. other my n 3 ptome of blood pid.oniug after tblo
operatkp performed In the mouser I hare desortbad.

The persons goierelly trot protected are the heads of
fannies Nit more than rs rer cent. of such persons have
ellen ited the tree vaccine vesicle, with itr it.te depressed
middle and eurrounding translucent margin. Of this Oust
the greater num bar proved to he well protected: a smaller
numbers lean securely ; and, as Just stated, about 15 per cent.
—the restilue— were in a sti,ta of great insecurity. In the
eines of tradesmen, the lar,n r portion were tolerably sate,
but not so many as In the ranks above ibm, and the number
of his,cure end unprotected eves about 20 to ao per cent
Among &merle servants a very general state of nen-pro-
tection existed. Very many had never been re vaccinated,
and about 5 per cent. had not bern vaccinated at all This
well accounts for the now too well-known fa:t, that it is
among this class that small-pox most often appears, and
demonstrates the vast Importance of stopping up this inlet
Into the security of families by periodical no vaccination.

In we coneklerable a Lumber of MOO there have been seen
every conceivable variety and degree of " faking from that
at chlUblike btn!golty to a highly swollen, hot, and painful
csndltiou of arm.

Anci-11-1;-etirfr7ns to observe Mat there hos room,' to natal
doling al& ey'demtc srht may be called a varlolold atm,.
sphere. so laiL.t re-vaceloa,lon has been more successful
,even by the old method) than in common times. Oro is
struck w,th the analogy tot during epidemic cholera small
at:ecks of distil-set wore more yrevalent than in ordloary
years . . .

•
It Is Impoalbla to avoid the conclusion that elves it is
difficult to termine beforvhard the actual candliion of the
individual to relation to small-pox, it is desirable at inch a
time to put that state to the test by the simple and ffi scions
< I re-vaceivatlng all, or tea ly ell, the members of a
household; and for this purpose I believe no method to vale-
able as that described In my letters.