Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1863-05-12
F01 the Standard.
THE SMALL POX QUESTION.

Mn demonstrating watched the course of the
Union Justices, and the controversy growing oat
of their action with much interest have thought
it might be of some interest to your readers, VINO
do not have access to the medical journals and more
especially to the foreign medical journals, to state
few facts as have been fully demonstrated by actual
experiment, by the most celebrated physician OF
the age. i approach the subject with much diff
dence after having been gravey informed by "A
Justice " Of Union county, that every man. wo-
man, and little boy girl in Union county know
how to vaccinate well as the NJ. DIS, and are do
ing it" progress in medical science so sur
prsing that were it net for the present desoat;ng
war, now over the land, that Union county would
become the Mecca of the medical pilgrim, IN the
pursuit of the invaluable information there to be
obtained TO show how far behind the old coun-
tries are in such information will state few'tacts
that have been CLEANED from the late English and
foreign publications.
In Sweden, for twenty. eight years previous to
the discovery ofvaccination, says the London naeS
2 $50 out of 1000 900 died annually Of small pox,
while for forty years after the discovery, the death
rate averaged only 1913. In Westphalia it came
down, under similar circumstances from 2.643 TO
ia; in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, from 4 600
to 200 in Denmark, the fatality of the disease be-
came but an eleventh of what it had been in Der
lin and large parts of Austria 120 Finally from
observations made for twenty-One years on 10000
persons, in Bohemia, it appears that the risk OF
death to vaccnated persons if they happen to con.
tract the small pox, is at the rate OF hive and hall
to 100 patients but the risk of death to non vac
cinated persons when they contract the disease, IS
at the rate of twenty and four fths for every
100 patients And the concurrent testimony of
London, Vienna and Milan shows, in an experience
Of nearly % 900 cases. that small pox after vaccin.
alton if it occurs, is but a fifth sixth as dan
gerous as the natural disease. And yet the small
pox is now increasing; the protecting influence OF
vaccination has diminished, and cases OF small pox
after vaccination have become more numerous, not
indeed because vaccination is delusion, but be-
cause the present process hardly amounts to vac
cination.
Four reasons are assigned for The recent increase
in small pox. First bad vaccination in respect to
the choice of matter employed and non observance
of the rules propounded by Jenner. Unqualified
persons have been in the habit of operating with
the matter in an imperfect state, and for many
years past until There is reason to believe the
perfect vescle is becoming the exceptional one and
not that which is most commonly seen and resorted
to-" Secondly, there is reason to believe, that
apart from disturbing causes, the COW pox matter
itself tends to deteriorate by descent 1t has been
ascertained that its VeScles less prominent than
formerly that its symptoms are shorter in dura-
ton, and that the older scars are much better
marked than recent OTes. In short, a series Of OBJ
servations has established says Mr.. Simon, that
certain original properties Of the vaccine conta
gion have very generally declined after its long
ceSSlVe descent from the COW, ana II is now very
questionable whether an indefinite length Of
transmission of the vaccine contagon, without re-
newal from the COW, has not been Of public detr-
ment-" Thirdly, apart from the fact Of the renewal
of lymph having been omitted by the National
Vaccine Establishment" for q considerable length
of time, there has been such demand upon its re-
sources which it was unable t. supply with lymph
of the best existing quality; and fOur.hly there is
no government requirement Of vaccination, except
in few of the European nations, and even there
this is as yet imperfeetly enforced Z.
Collision, Chatham Co., April %, 1868.