Connecticut western news., 1872-04-26
Vaccination.

The following is the concluding portion
 of the report of Committee on Vaccina-
 tion made to the New York Academy of
 Medicine, and published in accordance
 with resolution of that body, which ac-
 cepted and approved the report and au-
 thorized it's publication. In the present
 general prevalence of the smallpox, the
 subject has special importance, and the
 high source from which these suggestions emanate give to them additional value:
 "The utmost care should be taken in the performance and management of a first vaccination, to make it as nearly per- feet, regular and exhaustive as possible, for upon this depends very much the after insusceptibility to smallpox; and it is doubtful whether any amount of subse- quent representation will fully compensate for the deficiency of the first. The period
 for re-vaccination may be left very much to be determined by circumstances; it can
 never be done too early or too promptly in persons exposed to smallpox, and it
 should be performed in every person soon
 after the age of puberty, however frequent
 ly it may be repeated at earlier or later
 periods of life. It may succeed at one time when it would not at another; in- deed, it appears to be true that re-vaccina-
 tion, as well as primary vaccination, actu-
 ally takes more readily in some years than
 in others. 'One thoroughly good vaccina-
 tion to start with, says Seaton, 'and one
 careful re-vacoination after puberty, are
 all that is necessary for protection as com
 plete as any known proceeding can give
 against smallpox After the twenty-ffth
 year of age, the liability to smallpox in
 the well-vaccinated is very small. The
 effects of representation are occasionally
 as perfect in appearance and the symptoms
 produced as are those of primary vac
 cination of infancy, and just as a second
 attack of smallpox may be as complete as
 the first; but oftenest the representation
 produces only slight and brief symptoms
 and appearances, and sometimes no effects
 whatever-which could not be the case if
 the protective influence of vaccination steadily wore out in the human system
 with advancing age.' Of the nearly 30, ,000
 re-vaccinations in the Prussisn army in
 the year 1888, only about one-third were
 perfectly successful; resembling, that is,
 the results of a primary vaccination so
 closely as scarcely to be distinguished
 from it. the remaining two-thirQs being
 more or less modified or failing entirely.
 In other trials on large scale, the success has not been so great. It should be re-
 membered that secondary smallpox occurs
 on an average in about one per cent. of
 cases; and that while we urge re-vaccina- tion; both as test of remaining suscep-
 bility to it, and of further exhaustion of what may remain, it is we'll known that a
 single well-performed vaccination, perfect in all respects, does, with few exceptions, suffice to secure for life an individual sub- ! jected to it.
 ! "The smallpox has lost none of its ,, ma,ignity and virulence. And while un- vaccinated persons are allowed to accumu. late, it is vain to hope for any exemption from epidemics of greater or less extent When every child shall be carefully vac cinated, and re-vaccinated at later periods when the errors, ignorance and prejudices with which the subject is now invested . shall be dispelled, and the human family . shall become willing to place itself unhesi- 2 tatingly under the '@gis of Jenner,' vac . cination will become even more deserving 4 of the confidence and encomium of its friends and the public, less open to ob ection and refusal, and smallpox, if il
 does not disappear entirely, will become less frequent and fatal. In times of epi 2 demic prevalence of smallpox, all should r encourage vaccination. Vaccination ant 5 representation are positive duties. It il o to be regretted that any person should bt found so ignorant and prejudiced as, by
 precept or example, to oppose or discour
 age this safe and simple means of protec
 tion. In order to give complete and as
 sured protection against smallpox, every : person, not recently and thoroughly vac Q cinated should be at once re-vaccinated : and in subsequent life should repeat this l duty as often as every five or six years - until in adult life the repeated re-vaceina I tion ceases to have effect The perpetua @ exhaustation of each individuals suscepti bility to vaccinia and smallpox should be regarded as duty more imperative thar 9 that of maintaining policy of insurance or the necessary apparatus and well-drillec l methods of protection against accidental . fire or death. For smallpox is a calamity ' that must, if possible, be prevented, ever | at the trouble and expense of an excess O. ! ! precaution. In view of the dangers O l delay in the duty of vaccination, and O. :; the obligation of physicians and all others | | to secure prompt attention to this duty : the members of this Committee would U urgently recommend that vaccination = should be promptly secured to every child 2 also, that re-vaccination should not bt ! neglected in any person at the periot T 2 when the change from childhood to adul Il life renders the individual specially sus a ceptible to contagion; and that in th' presence of smallpox every communit. 4 should adopt measures to provide fol general vacclnation and re-vaccination a = public duty" ...