Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-12-11
vAccINAT1oN-Irs DANGER AND MODE
OF ACTION.

AS smallpox is still with uninterrupted
severity raging in this State. it may be Of
interest to some to hear once more discus
sion about the value of the protective meas
ures employed to guard against this dangerous
malady. Vaccination as practiced at present
among all cultivated nations of the globe was
introduced in consequence of some important
discoveries and observations of an English
physician, DR.. Jenner, at the close of the last
AID beginning of this century. DR.. Jenner
observed that at times of prevailing small
po1 epidemics cattle oftentimes were affected
with an eruption similar in appearance and
character to that of smallpox in men. Fur
Their. that this eruption would SO netimes be
communicated from the animals to mixers,
stabemen and others that had occasion to
come in contact with them and lastly, that
all such persons who once had been iDoculated
by cattle always would remain free from
smallpox, while nearly all others in severe
epidemics would be attacked. These obser-
vations lad DIR. Jenner to investigate the
matter more closely, and as the result of
numerous experiments he established the fol-
lowing facts /, that smallpox can be prop
agated from men toanimals, especially to neat
cattle 2, that the course of the disease in
animals always is much milder than in men !;
g. that the eow-pox, when again transmitted
by incubation from animals to men, will
also there only produce a mild, modified and
dangerless form of the disease, which, how
ever, will give immunity against the real
smallpox as well as against a second infec.
ton with cow-iymph. The whole process of
vaccination is based upon this last fact ::
the human system is artifcally inocu-
lated with an infectious principle of
through the animal organism, is so weakened
and modified, that it is only able to produce
mild and dangerless form Of the disease,
fr lin which the system receives the same pro-
lection as it otherwise would from one attack
of the real smallpox. 1t will be observed
that there exists a great resemblance between
smallpox and other infectious diseases, such
as scarlet fever, measles, etc., which, by in
vading the system once, give protection
against second infection, with the only diff
ference, that in case of smallpox the same
protection can also be obtained by vaccin-
alton.
Ofhistorical interest may bementioned, that
long prior to Jenner's time, before the intro
duction of vaccination with cow-p ox, different
nations, and especially Asiatic half-civilized
tribes, used to inoculate themselves with
! smallpox virus as protection against this
! disease, for il was well known that inocu-
! lated pox never became as serious as those
! acquired by infection. The Chinese dressed
/ their children with gowns saturated with
smallpox virus, or pushed the crust of a
pustule into their nostrils. The Hindoos
practiced incubation by fastening small
| rags, charged with old variole virus and
saturated with Gauges water, on q pre-
| viously scaritied arm. At the beginning of
last century this mode of incubation was so
popular aroong the Greeks and foreigners of
| Coustantinople that even Lady Montague,
| the wife of the British representative, had
her two children, at the age of years, in
oculated with small pox virus. In European
countries-Sweden, Denmark, England,
Scotland-this form of incubation was prac-
| ii. ed up to the end of the last century.
| The question, if vaccination is really of
such great value, SO frequently advanced of
late, can confidently be answered in the
affirmative, for it has been ascertained by
statistics that before this century one-tenth
F., of all people died of smallpox lin Europe
yearly about 400,0 00), and one.tenth more
were dis6gured by the same disease. Since
the introduction>of vaccination the-total NOR
tally has greatly decreased, and the NOR
! tality of smallpox been reduced to mini.
mum. 1t can further be observed that in
every epidemic, also in the one at present
raging on this coast, that principally the non
vaccinated are severely attacked, and that
also among them the mortality is greatest,
while such that have been vaccinated, if at
| all infected, will only receive mild form,
which seldom proves fatal.
| ST under certain circumstances vaccination
itself can become dangerous to health,
| parents have been hesltating in having their
IL. i so1
! even positively objected to it. This danger,
( however, is by no means SO great that there is
/ real cause for alarm, or that in comparison TO
| the benefit obtained thereby, it would even
| come in consideration, especially as the prin-
| cipal danger by care and conscienciousneas of
| the physician can be fully avoided This main
| danger of vaccination lies in the possibility,
| that by vaccinating from arm to arm inherit
/ airy blood diseases, especially syphilis. can be
| propagated from one child to the other.
! Numerous instances, where such thing ac-
| tually has taken place, are recorded. In Re-
valta, Italy, in the year 1861, in consequence
| of vaccinating with impure virus, within six
weeks 46 out of 63 children become syphilitic.
An example of similar nature occurred in
! Hungary in 1862. The grandmother of q
child from whom the lymph was taken was
syphilitic. The result was, that all children
vaccinated with the came received large eat.
/ ing sores at the place of incubation, and
were soon after affected with ell other symp.
| toms of syphilis. But fortunately this danger
can be avoided, and cases of the above de-
| scription can positively be excluded thereby,
| that the physicians do not vaccinate at all
from arm to arm, but only use animal lymph
| (bovine vaccine). The latter is obtained as
| follows: In stables especially kept for that
| purpose (such are found in the East as well
| as in all European countries), healthy calves
are inoculated with smallpox virus and the
| fluid lymph, certain number of days after
| incubation, is applied to ivory points these
| are dried and then sent to agents
! all over the country, of whom physicians
can obtain the same with ease, according to
want. Vaccine prepared in this way will,
| under the most favorable circumstances, only
retain it's vitality for few months, therefore
agents are supplied by those establishments
at regular intervals. Other unpleasant COM
| plications of vaccination. such as erysipelss,
liberation, gangrene, etc, at the place OF
| incubation, need not be feared, as they APP
pear very seldom, and then can easily be
controlled by proper treatment. 1t undoubt-
| edly will be Of great interest TO understand
/ the mode of action of vaccination--how it is
possible that by one successful vaccination or
| by primary attack of smallpox the system
| acquires immunity against a second in
| lection. Statistics and experience prove
| the fact that immunity is obtained,
| but how it is obtained admits of two
| different explanations either by the first in
vasion substance important to the admit
| ance, growth propagation and nutrition
of the infectious principle, is withdrawn
| from the system-or by the same process
| something new, q protective substance, is
communicated to the system. which inter.
| feres with a second invasion and rejects the
same. Both theories--the first "exhaugtion
| theory" the other protection theory y
have their defenders. By both theories
smallpox is regarded as parasitic sffec.