Morning journal and courier., 1881-02-23
Wednesday Morning, Feb. B. 1881.
AN OLD QUESTION REVIVED.

l The annual discussion of the efficacy of vaccination in lessening the ravages of small
 pox is again in progress. And, as usual,
 there are not wanting those who, in the face
 of the great mass of testimony in favor of
 the practice, deny it's usefulness and protest
 against its continuance. One who has taken
 part in the discussion-a Philadelphia physi-
 eian-not only denies that vaccination pro- | tects against smallpox, but even goes so far
 as to say that it induces the disease
 Fortunately, we believe, the general opinion of civilized people is in favor of vac- | cination, and this opinion is not likely to
 change until much more and weightier evi-
 dence is offered by the opponents of the practice. If anything in this world of doubt l can be made sure it would seem that the ben efts of vaccination have been abundantly es- tablished. In England the subject has been
 very thoroughly examined. Before the dis covery of vaccination that country lost 5000
 smallpox cases to each l, 1000, 900 of population.
 This.fgure fell to ITO from 1888 to 1S4O, before
 free vaccination was introduced. From 1s41
 to 1853 it fell to BOA to each 1,OO0,O 900 of in-
 habitants, and from 1854 to 1863, 16O deaths
 to each 1, 100000 of people So late as 1863
 smallpox prevailed as an epidemic in London,
 and Drs. Buchanan and Seaton made
 special work of investigation for the purpose
 of ascertaining in how much or in how little
 vaccination could be regarded as a protec-
 tiou. These gentlemen have examined more
 than 5O, ,0O0 children in national schools, par
 ochial schools and warehouses. They found that some had never been vaccinated. Of
 1000 of these, 1860 were scared by smallpox.
 Of each 1000 bearing more or less perfect vaccine scars, less than two, on an average, had any smallpox scars. When the vaccina- ton showed several genuine scars, the aver age per thousand showing smallpox scars was O.62. MT. Marson, of the London Small pox hospital, made a study of upwards of 15, 900 cases, and found that the mortality rate among unvaccinated persons was 37 per cent, while among the vacoinated the rate was 65 per cent. In all cases it was found that the risk run by well vaccinated persons was about one-seventieth that run by unvac- cinated persons.
 Vaccination has the general approval in l other countries. In France the death rate l per annum from variola has been decreased | 30, GOO since Jenner's discovery. In Austria | so much is thought of vaccination that a | magistrate may banish any individual who | refuses to submit to it. In Prussia no per l son can contract marriage without a certifi- l cate of vaccination. Sweden punishes se- l verely for refusal to vaccinate. Turkey | obliges the parents to have each new born l child vaccinated. England obliges every in 1 dividual to be vaccinated and pays the cost | of vaccination France has long had 8 man. | datory law concerning vaccination which has | been made more severe and | which is strictly enforced.
 What those who object to the practice say of the inoculation of persons with other dis eases by vaccination has nothing to do with | the main question. Pure vaccine virus from | the healthy COW has never, so far as we can | learn given rise to tow levers and tubercles | in the lungs. That virus derived from the | human subject may contain the virus of oth- | CT diseases is affirmed by many and does not l seem impossible That we'll vaccinated per sons take smallpox in the modified form of 1 varioloid is true. It is also true that men fearfully pitted by smallpox have taken it a second time and died of it. But as rule | smallpox does not recur in the same person. As rule good vaccination modifies the disease if. taken, to the extent of rendering it comparatively harmless, with reasonable care And as @ rule it gives immunity from the disease. Moral Get vaccinated as often as the best authorities on the subject that you can find think necessary.