Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1855-08-10
FREMONT JOURNAL.
Friday, August 10, 1855.
mere Is Great Evil in VacciaatiOn.

There Is Great Evil In Vaccination
Or. Verde Delise has jus; published a
Paris very learned and important worl
on Vaccination as a Cause of Human De
generation" The views be snnounces arr
so original and striking, yet supported BY
so strong an array of facts, and so far and
judieious an exercise of the dialectic power
that so generally distinguishes the French
Faculty, that il becomes our duty, more as
men than even as journalists, to place them
under the appreciation Of our readers and to
ask for them the careful study and further
Investigation of our medical friends.
Among the facts that 6rst led Dr. Delisle
to bis discovery-for such We believe it.
that vaccination exercises a degenerating
influence on every constitution that has been
submitted TO it, he relates the extraordina-
y instance Of young friend Of his whom
he had known from childhood as suffering
from pulmonary weakness At given point
however, Oft disease, when consumption
bad plainly declared ITSELF and the patient
was declared to be beyond the aid Of med.
icine, he was attacked BY smallpox, and
TO the surprise Of his attendants, who lesti-
fy to the fact in the work before Us, exact.
y as the new malady advanced the old one
retreated, all at last il was found that the
patient in recovering from the one malady
vas cured Of the other.
The observation thus made was speedily
applied to practice iu the Doctors own fam
sly-for having child in the last stages
.ef consumption, condemned by the very
conclusive authority Of Professor Chomel,
the celebrated ''lung practitioner, er,"-be plac-
ed the patient under circumstances in which
he might take the small-p naturally, and
found, as 10 the former case that the con-
samption was cured uuder the influence Of
the new desease.
This seemed sufficiently conclusive: but
very singular confirmation of the new
truth was suggested to the Doctor in the
long established theory Of The Greek and
Roman physicians, Of the Arabs, and of the
best professional teachers down to the time
Of Sydenham inclusively, by which it was
held that small pox was the necessary ef-
fort Of nature, under one of the wisest Of
her laws, to purge the body Of certain nox-
ious impurities about the period of adolesc-
ence. Even the lower animals are subject
10 similar law. Thus, The COW has the
cow.pox, horses have swelled legs pigs the
sWine-poz, dogs and monkeys the mango,
sheep the rot, end so on.
Following out bis investigations the Doc
tor comes to the conclusion that vaccination
has no chemical or therapeutic action, but
rather a mechanical one, and simply con-
zines the virus and prevents its deyelope.
ment.
What now happens to the virus is the
subject Of most interesting part of the
work He shows that il is latent, now de-
Veloping itself inside in typhus fever, in
gsngrenous forms of quinsy, 10 Group, scrof-
ula, cancers, pulmonary tubercles; and he
insists, with show Of evidence as curious
as il is strong, that the poison sometimes
concretes in iubercles in the spinal cord
producing paralysis; or 10 the brain, pro-
ducing diminuiion or loss ofintellectusl pow
er The evidences of physical and moral
degeneration which are brought forward in
this part Of the work are very interesting,
and appear 20 lend more than plausibili.y TO
the striking views they support.
In his explanation Of the reasons which
led to the easy and general acception of the
vaccinaling process, DR.. Delisle is less hap
py--the iauaticism of the new theory is al
ready setting him in arms against Jenner
and Gregory, the great causes Of the mis-
chief.
He afirms that Jenner did not believe in
his own discovery, and while vaccinating
every body else, carefully inoculated bis
own child; and that Gregory even confessed
in private circles his own want of faith, and
IKE Jenner inoculated instead Of Vsccinsted
IN the case of bis own children.
The last evidence be adduces in favor
Of his system is the well known fact-At
least generally admitted-that vaccination
only Temporarily prevents the Development
Of the virus even in the form Of smallpox.
He has all discoverer's triumph In the
difficulties and sbsurdities into which the
French Academy fell when the fact became
asceItained that vaccination was no certain
and permanent preservatiVe. At first the
learned members insisted that there was no
such cases; then that ;he vaccination had
been imperfeotly performed. afterwards that
it was not true small! pox; end finally that
the vaccine matter had lost its perservative
qualities and must be renewed.
The question thus raised becomes a;
present doubly interesting from the course
adopted by so many governments. In Rus
sia vaccination is matter Of legal compul-
sion; in Germany and England it can only
be escaped under penalties; and in France
no one Is permitted to enter the army, navy,
the government schools. colleges, or char
table foundations without a certificate that
opperation has been performed. If inocu-
lation be after al, the right course, as De-
isle insists, these compulsory interfersnces
ofgovernment will appear sufficiently ridic-
ulous, to say nothing Of The mischief.
Life Illustrated
Do,H Naaszo