Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-12-29
KACCINATInN.


VACCINATION.
To the Editor of the Union and American:
In late number of your paper noticed
an article signed D., and headed smallpox
and vaccination, which conflicts not only
with nv own experience, hut that of all
well informed physicians to whom l have
mentioned the subject, and is especially
contrary to the opinions Of our best authors
on this subject; and as | consider this article
highly prejudicial to the public good, l feel
constrained to disabuse the minds of any
who may have been influenced by its false
teachings, not By my own assertions, but by
strong quotations from some of our best au-
thors on the subject under consideration.
The point to which particularly ailude is
the authors idea of the transmissibility OF
of the Syphilitic virus in vaccination.
He ignores the possibility OF such trans
mission altogether, while the eminent Ri
cord and other celebrities, after years OF
fruitless efforts to demOnstr ate this theory,
recognised their error, and are row advo
Gates Of the opposite theory. SD" is evi-
dently not member OF the medical profes-
sion. or is an unfortunate ore on whom the
sun of modern Illumination has never
shone; and in order to establish the truth
of nv assertion and the fals.ty of his, il is
only necessary to refer to Prof. TrOusseau's
published lectures on Clinical Medicine,
vol. 2, page 124, which embraces the latest
inves. igations on this subject. He says,
gentlemen, there is q poiut TO which de-
Sire to call your special attention to-day; it
is never to vsccipate with lymph taken
from one under the influence of the syphi-
litic diathesis. The transmission of the
great-pox by vaccination is a fact which
now seems to have been demonstrated.
Since the beginning of this century, and
particularly in later years, cases Of this
kind have been recorded both in France
and in other foreign countries. To them !
can add one which you have seen in the
clinical wards, and which l shall now briefly
recall to your recollection. The patient,
Young woman of eighteen years Of age,
came into the Hotel Dieu for uterine af-
fsction. As we had at the time some cases
of smallpox, | recommended that she
should have herself vaccinated. The lympa
was taken from child apparently in per-
feet health, and from the same lymph four
infants in the nurseryward were also vac
cinated. Cow-pOx was regularly devel-
oped in the children, and during their
residence in hospital nothing anom-
alous was noticed, but unfortunately when
they left we lost sight of them. The young
woman had false cow-pox; ON the day after
vaccination, the punctures became salient;
they were surrounded by an intiamed areo-
Ia, and accompanied by great itching of the
skin; in four or five days nc trace Of pune
ture remained. The patient then left US,
but it was agreed that she should return
once a fortnight to follow out the treatment
OF the uterine affection. On der first return,
twenty-three days after vaccination, she
drew attention to the punctures on both
arms; two Of those on the left arm seemed
to have taken. l observed that the
pustules were ecthyma (syphiltic). at
her next visit fortnight later, the pustules
of fecthyma were observed TO have become
transformed into scabs of Rnpia (syphilitic)
indurated at the base; Ia the axilla we
found some of the lymphatic glands in a
state of indolent turgesceDce, and finally,
an eruption of roseOla (syphilltic) clearly
showed that the woman was under the in
fluence of sypbilitic poisoning, and that the
starting point Of the poison was tnc0nteSt
ably the vaccination pustules. The fact
which l wish to impress upon you is this:
that the syphilis has in numerous cases
been transmitted 10 vaccination.
1t is more a matter of hypothesis than
of demonstration that it is only By the
blood that syphilis is transmitted in this
class of cases. Besides it is rather difficult 70
understand how that which is, contained in
the serum of the blood, that is the syphilitic
virus, should not also be contained in the
serosity of the vaceinal peck. In the dis
cussion which took place in 1854 and 1865, in
the Academy Of Medicine, upon the trans
mission Of syphilis ia vaccination, NM.
Depaul and B0uvier demonstrated the rel !
atiye frequency of cases of transmission, |
and showed that vaccination carried out |
with lymph derived from syphilitic child |
NAV sometimes assume the character Of a |
real social calamity.
| have now to add on the authority Of M. |
Depaul, the history of forty infants contain
mated with syphilis out Of f3rty-six vacci- |
mated in 1921.
According to the report CT N. Cerioli, |
there were thus, from four original cases, |
155 children directly infected with syphilis |
by vaccination, and there were others sec- |
ondarily infected through them, bringing up !
TO 9OG the total number of syphilitic con- !
Examinations.
Any amount of evidence going TO estab-
lish the truth of my assertion and the falsi- /
ty of DIS, could be added here, did time
and space admit, but this hope "a sutf- /
cient to satisfy any unbiased mind.
In answer to his bOUine personalities and /
cur-tailad signature, must add that the |
latter is incomplete, the letter T that should /
follow the D to make the combination /
more expressive, having been omitted. AS |
to the ''turning" let me assert that I'D. :"
(F.. } has no turning to do, having under
gone that mutilation long siuce, viz: When
he conceived and brought forth his illegltl-'
mate combined medicine" system, by |
which he was constituted Prof. ex (uot Ex-
Prof.) all Of which shall be inter nos. Re |
garding the price Of vaccination from DIS
standpoint, l suppose that any respectable |
price would appear high; but from mine, 1 |
consider his price $50 oents) as exceedingly |
dear for matter obtained bu any one enter
tanning bis views of color or eleanness.
o. 81 tscuissis, Phil0sophus manuissis.
OVER THE RIVER.