The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-11-24
Vaccination, Primitive and Modern.

Nearly century has elapsed since the
discovery of DR.. Jenner that vaccine
virus was an antidote for smallpox SO
moved the gratitude of the British Gov
ernment that it gave him nearly half as
much money as our own people raised
for Mrs. Garfield. When he died
splendid monument was erected to his
memory, and he is 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
the hopes at first entertained. We have
been told by an aged physician, whose
studies began while vaccination was still
novelty, that his instructor advised
him not to waste much time in reading
about smallpox, as it would soon disap-
pear from among men.
The failure of this prediction has arisen
in part from the neglect of vaccination,
and in part, also, from the fact that what
is recognized as virus has been weakened
by transmission through long line of
human subjects. 1t has also been more
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 been at
tackled with smallpox in severe, and
perhaps fatal forms, while others have
been made wretched invalids for life.
These facts have led to an organized
opposition to vaccination, which has its
headquarters in England, though its
ramiications extend to other countries,
our own among the number. It publishes
tracts and reports, helps poor people to
fight the agents of compulsory vaccina-
ton, and boldly asserts that unmodified
smallpox is preferable to that which may
come after vaccination, perhaps with
| deplorable accomplishments. OF course
this is exaggeration and absurdity. One
| has only to glance at the literature of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
to find abundant evidence of the fearful
ravages of variola, and of the terror
which it inspired in palace and in hovel.
Still, it may be questioned whether
| much of what passes for vaccine virus is
really such. If long humanized it may
have become inert, if not impure.
Recognizing this possibility, it has be-
come the 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 it does not
follow that every pustule found on COW
is identical with that observed and ex-
perimented from by Jenner. It is GER
tainly true that while in the early days
of vaccination one operation was thought
enough to protect one during life, it is
now held that repeated vaccinations are
essential-that the process should be
| gone through with at least as often as
smallpox threatens to became epidemic.
This may be a conclusion established by
more careful observation, but it seems
to indicate that the quality of the virus
has been impaired. We have been told
of man who was vaccinated in the
early years Of this century by matte,
brought direct from Jenner. When his
arm was well, to test the value of the
process, he was inoculated with smallpox
virus. He went to pest house to await
results. He did not have varioloid, ever
in its mildest form. Could as much be
hoped from much of the vaccination O
the present day ?-E.rchange.