New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-06-06

bost nbysicans understand it, protects the
svs,em AGAINST smallpox as surely as an at
tack of the disease itself would. Some persons
it is true, have taken the disease AFTER thorough
vaccination but some have taken the diseaSe
after having suffered from 1t once DeIore anu
the chances in the one case are nelther grea,ei
nor less than in the other. And 1t should DC
added that the chances of recovery from lhiS
second attack, should it come, are vastly
greater with those who have been yacclnated
than with those who have not been. The ex-
animation and treatment of $4,000 cases ny
Mr. Marson in the London SMALLPOX Hos
nital. proved that the likelihood OF
death TO well vaccinated persons was
one-fourteenth of that to which the badly
voccinated were exposed. The latter died at
the rate of 7.73 in hundred the former at
the rate of OBS; while of the unvacclnated
there persisted in every hundred 300. vi
these $4,000 patients, nineteen in every hnd-
red had previously had smallpox. These fg-
ures are taken from the Report on vaccination
presented at the last annual meeting of the
American Social Science Association. In fact,
it is not putting the case too strongly 10 say
that under a thorough system of vaccination
the danger of death from smallpox is almost
annihiated; nor is the prOphesy considered
OVERLOAD that the abandonment of the prac-
tee would expose us to new pestllence that
would destroy from three to six thousand lives
in and about New-York alone.
To meet this tremendous array of figures,
which might be indefinitely extended, and
| powerfully strengthened by reenforcements OF
kindred and collateral facts, there should be
in NVaI
bers and authority. Where are theyf There
| are feelings, repugnances, prejudlces, misgiV-
| ings mainly due to fanciful and superstltlous
| causes But where are the facts mat the
victims of smallpox are doomed at any rate,
and would fall by another disease If they dld
not perish by that, is notion which the DEATH
rate disproyes; the mortality in London, for
| example. being but three -fourths what 1T
was century ago, exclusive OF smallpox.
| The fear that constitutional diseases-scrofula,
| for example-may be communicated through
vaccination, acts as a discouraging ana pre-
venting cause with many intelligent
and conscientious people, whose scrupu-
lousness in regard to personal health
renders them more apprehensve of danger
than hopeful of safety from the pro-
cess of innoculation. But this fear is declared
to be groundless by physicians whose expert
ence gives them a title to judge. Marson, VINO
has performed more than 10000 vaccinations,
| never saw other diseases communicated with
the vaccine matter, and has no faith in the
| popular reports that they are so cOmmunl-
Gated. The smallpox itself, "most contagious
:" of all diseases is not transmissible in this
way. 1t is possible, indeed, that the introduce
ton of the vaccine matter, by disturbing the
general health, Just as teething will do, or ca
tarrh, may furnish opportunity for constltu-
| tional disease to appear and have It's course I;
but even this is infrequent; and more than
| this cannot be alleged.
| Prejudice is protean. 1t takes on as many
! forms az fancy can invent, and Justiiies every
| one by the best of reasons. The first assall-
ants of vaccination predicted that all manner
| of bovine plaques would be communicated to
| its victims-that they would, in addition to
ordinary human maladies, adopt the bestial
ills that kline are heir to. Modern assailants
wish this might be the worst luck. 1t is the
human maladies they dread. eff DOCTORS"
they say would only take the matter directly
Z" from the COW, we should make no objection.
"There are diseases which cows have not.
" But we do object decidedly to matter that
"has been passed along from arm to arm,
taking up all manner of sckly contagious
"by the way"
Now the fact is--at least, competent author
tiles assert it as fact--that lymph direct from
the innocent COW sometimes occasions trouble
some, even dangerous, inflammation and fever;
that it produces no better vescicles than
those from humanized lymph, and is received
less willingly into the system. The best vac
cnations are "from arm to arm"
Facts like these ought by this time to be
well understood. They are accessible, and
should be familiar. They stand, we believe,
unimpeached, and fairly unimpeachable. But
prejudice is stubborn too. Nothing fights so
hard, or is so hard to fight. Truths must be-
come truisms, and thrice attrited at that,
before they cease to be astounding revelations
to the multitude who most need them. So we
must keep pounding, hoping to mold the truth
at last into a shape that will commend itself
to every mind of sufficient intelligence to COM
prehend that twice two Is four