The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1881-12-21
Vaccination, Primitive and Modern.

Nearly century has elapsed since the
discovery of DR.. Jenner that vaccine
virus was an antidote for smallpox 50
moved the gratitude of the British Gov
ernment that 1t gave him nearly half ~
much money as our own people raised
for Mrs. Garfield. When he died
.plend!d monument was erected to his
memory, and he il ranked everywhere
among the benefactors OF humanity.
Yet it is only fair to say that the expert
ence of late years has not sustained all
tI.e hope, ut first entertained. We have
been told by an aged physician, whose
,,udi began wh'le vaccination was still
il novelty, thnt his instructor advised
lim MT It, vnsto much time in reading
4, 'luut smal ipox, as II would soon disap-
uylr from among men.
The failure OF this prediction has arisen
IN part from the neglect OF vaccination,
aud in part, also, from the fact that what
is recognized M virus has been weakened
by transmission through long line OF
hannah subjects. 1t has also been moro
than once combined with diseases far
worse than that which it WAS intended
to keep off. People who have been
more than once vaccinated, or who have
supposed that they were, have boon at
tucked with smallpox in severe, and
perhaps fatal forms, while others have
been made wretched invalids for life.
These facts have led to al organized
opposition to vaccination, which has its
headquarters in England, though its
notifications extend TO other countries,
our own among the number. 1t publishes
tracts and reports, helps poor people TO
fight the agents Of compulsory vacoina-
ton, and boldly asserts that unmodified
smallpox is preferable to that which may
como after vaccination, pechaps with
dcplorable Accomplishments. OF course
this is cxaggeration and absurdity. One
has only to glance at the literature Of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
to find abundant evidence Of the fearful
ravagcs of variola, and Of the terror
which it inspired in palace and in howell.
Still, it may be questioned whether
much of what passes for vaccine virus is
really such. II long humanized 1t may
have become inert, il not impure.
Recognizing this possibility, IL has be-
como tho fashion to take virus directly
from the COW, and the severity Of the
symptoms following vaccination from
this source has been thought to prove
the wisdom of the step. Yet II does not
follow that evs!y pustule found OIL q COW
is identical with that observed and ex-
perimented from by Jenner. II is GER
tainly true that while in the early days
Of vaccination one operation was thought
enough to protect one during life, it rs
now held that repeated vacoinations are
essential-that the process should be
gone through with ct least Is often Is
smallpox threatens 10 became epidemic.
This may be . conclusion established by
more careful observation, but il seems
TO indicate that the quality Of the virus
has been impaired. We have been told
Of Q man who was vsccinated in the
early years Of this century BY matter
brought direct from Jenner. When his
arm Vas well, to test the value Of the
process, he was inooulated with smallpox
virus. He went 10 pest house 70 await
results. He did not have variol6id. even
in its mildest form. Gould ~ much be
hoped from much Of the vaccination Of
The present dsy?-Erchange.