Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-08-14
SMALLPOX.
How to Avoid Recommendations Of the
Board of Health.

Board of Health.
The Board of Health, from the Office of
its Secretary, Dr. f. w. Hatch, in this city,
Gas issued circular to the public upon the
subject of smallpox, in which it says that
it has been recognized as part of the his
tory of smallpox that it occurs at certain in
tervals, at periods not absolutely accurate or
well defined, indeed, but sufficiently distinct
to attract attention. During the prevalence
of an epidemic of smallpox almost every
one, under the influence of fear or by force
of municipal law, is sooner or later subjected
to vaccination, and upon many of those pre-
viouIy vaccinated the operation is repeated.
Only the unprotected are attacked,
and the epidemic dies out at length for
want of fuel. A period of rest ensues, during
which q certain proportion of adults who
have been vaccinated IN youth acquire re-
newed susceptibility, and others have been
| gradually but continuously adde to the pop
ulation by birth or immigration who have
| never had the disease nor been vaccinated
! The fertility of the soil is renewed ready for
the reception and propagation OF the germs
| whenever accidently introduced. We IN Cal
ifornia have passed through one of shese pc
RODS of rest. Numbers have been added 60
the population Of both city and country, and
inasmuch as where there is no cause for
alarm the duty Of vaccination is likely to be
| post goned, many of these are now unprOteet-
ed new material available for the disease
has sprung up"
The Board then urges all who have not
been vaccinated, and all who have not been
vaccinated for q long period, TO be vaccin-
ate1 at this time, as there is reason to believe
another smallpox period is at hand. The
Board calls special attention to these points
to be observed, that vaccination may be eff
cacious:
l. The virus used should be of known
purity. differentiation. or vaccination per-
formed by unprofessional friends, unqualified
to distinguish the true sore from that which
is spurious, affords but slight protection. 1t
is to this cause that so many reputed failures
in the consecutive influence of vaccination
are to be attributed.
3 Revaccination during the prevalence
of an epidemic, or after the lapse of eight or
ten years from the primary operation, is nee
essary. A scar upon the arm, the result of
previous vaccination, affords no certain evil
dence that the protective Influences not lost.
3. Virus obtained from the arms of revac-
mated persons should never be employed
Il IL Is JteLbN CtTbdln IIl1J Only one disease
ever has been introduced by vac ;ination, and
with ordinary care this is impossible. Il is
better to avoid virus taken from adults.
3. The dangers attributable to the opera
ton itself are too light to weigh against its
positive benefits. It has been estimated
that ole serious accident may occur in one
case in 100, GOO certainly not more frequently
than would be expected from any similar
wound or abrasion of the skin.
6 No so-called vaccination which does not
result in what is known as characteristic
sore vesicle, pursuing regular changes or
periods of development, is safely to be relied
u BON. There is no other method than that
universally adopted of making the insertion
upon the abraded skin or beneath the skin of
some portion of the body, which can, with
any degree of safety, be relied upon.
Z. A certain more or less definite time
intervenes between the reception of the con-
tagion and its manifestation in the body of
the individual affected, during which certain
processes are going on in the system which
are somehow preparatory to the developmt MT
of the disease. In small-p this period may
be stated in a general way to be twelve days
for the beginning of fever, or fourteen for
that of the eruption; in the vaccine disease
or cow-poX it is three or four, and such is the
protective or antagonistic power OF the latter
that If its virus or contagion be inserted even
after the exposure to SMALLPOX, its shorter
incubative period enables it to anticipate the
other, and, if it do not altogether prevent it,
to induce such deviation from It's regular
course as to essentially modify it and deprive
it OF its greatest danger.
S. Bovine virus or that taken directly
from the COW, is fashionable, and in conse-
quence Of the excellent arrangements which
have been made by different parties, it can
at all times be obtained fresh and pure. 1t
is reliable, and is to be recommended. Yet
there is strong reason to believe, and such is
the opinion Of the highest authorities on this
subjsct, that humanized virus, obtained from
the arm of healthy child, loses none of its
protective efficacy even when propagated
through generations.
NEW FREIGHT DEPor.-The new freight
depot was yesterday being given its first coat
of paint-a light drab. which looks very neat.
The whole inside is receiving coat also of
Paris whiting which gives the interior
light and finished appearance. The business
of receiving and handling freight will be
transferred to the new building in about a
week. The old shed will then be torn down
as far south as the old freight Office, and the
extension of the new building to that point
carried forward. The new Office for head
quarters and the clerical force, at the foot of
J street, will be finished in about two weeks,
when it will be occupied, and the old Office,
with remaining portion of the old depot, will
be removed and the new depot extended to
the north line of K street, the same as that
already constructed between l and j. a fine
flagstaff, 40 feet in length, is painted and
ready to be put up on the tower portion, and
viii stand Immediately against the center of
j street. The architecture of the building,
Of the rustic order, is finely in harmony with
the proportions OF the structure, and when
the whole is completed it will be the finest
freight depot upon the coast.
PERsoNAL.-Ex-G Governor Irwin and wife
arrived yesterday from Yreka, and are stop
ping at the Golden Eagle. w. w. Stow
came up from the Bay yesterday, and is stop
ping in the city. Conductor Fredericks went
down yesterday upon his old route for the
last time before entering upon his new posi-
tion at the Bay. made vacant by the promo
ton of +. NJ. Ration TO Master Of Trans
portation. A. Z. WagstafF, of the Wood
land Daily Republican, is at the Golden
Eagle A. j. Stevens returned from Arizona
yesterday. Hank Smith, of the Belcher
mine, came down yesterday. Harry Norton,
Of San Francisco, is filing the place of John
Talbot as ticket agent during the absence OF
the latter at the East.
MERCHANDISE REPORT. The following
freight for Sacramento passed Ogden on the
l1th: Waterhouse & Lester, 46 bundles and
81 boxes spozes, LAG bundles felloes, 164 bun
dies hubs, 10 bundles shafts; Huntington,
Hopkins & Co., 2 bxs hardware, l box locks,
l box butts Bachelor, Van Guilder & Co.,
carload harrow wood; Weinstock & Lubin, 2
bundles paper, 8 boxes hats; NJ. c. Hawley
& Co.. bundles rubber betting G. II. Gil
man, case whips j. S. Block, box iron
castings G. II. Stevens & Co, 4 cases shoes
]. Griesel, case whips Studebaker Bros,
2 boxes buggy tops and l box carriage cast.
ings.
FREIGHT MovENENTs.-The following car
loads of freight we're received in this city yes
terday Five of wheat, l tank of oil, 10 of
steel rails, 3 of barley, of lumber. l of
canned fruit, of wool, of ice, 2 of gran.
tie, 2 Of merchandise, l of wine, of -four. 2
of wood, of coal, of wheels. l of iron,
of hardwood lumber. Also these carloads