Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-19
OUR MAIL POUCH.
The Vaccination Issue.


To the Editor OF The Dispatch:
You can well afford to overlook Mr.. Crook
shank's endeavor to rob Mr.. Jenner'' of his
prestige" as the originator of vaccination. II
the array of evidence can be relied upon, no
one deserves much credit for the discovery. In
your editorial you refer to the abatement Of
smallpox among the Indians after vaccination.
DR.. Winterburn cites an instance of where
every one of them died Of smallpox who had
been vaccinated.
: The London Critic thinks that IL vaccination
were not compulsory SO physicians out Of 100
would continue to vaccina.e their own chill
dren. With this privilege no one could inter-
fere. 1t Is the right of every citizen to choose
whatever means may seem best to him to pre-
serve his family from disease and while it
would be an infamous outrage to tell any one
that he should not vaccinate himself, it is
equally infamously outrageous to compel any
one to submit to it against his judgment.
The doctors who attend smallpox do not all
escape even If they have been vaccinated DIR.
Gllbert, of Tippecanoe, o., was attending an
epidemic Of smallpox, during which he felt safe
on account Of the protection or supposed pro-
lection of vaccination. He took smallpox.
however, and during his lucid moments he en-
1oyed himself by looking into glass. damning
smallpox, damning vaccination and everything
connected with it. During this same epidemic
numbers of others who were vaccinated con-
tracted the disease, and in one family, only the
The opinion expressed by the London Critic
tnat isolation would soon DO away with the
necessity of vaccination, Is something that
should commend itself to Boards of Health.
Thelr junction is hygienic, not medicinal; and
Wnen they confine themselves and their re-
sources to the proper exercise of that function
they viii accomplish what they have hitherto
tailed TO accomplish, the Punishment, not only
OF smallpox, but of all other zymotic diseases.
That vaccination is dangerous only when i'm
properly performed IS position untenable
when we consider that all operations are per-
formed alike. Frightful ulcers follow slight
scarihcations, and negative results follow four
large points of Introduction.
For my part would rather have the flesh
less bones of thousand victims of legitimate
smallpox pointed at me, than to be compelled
to face the awful deformity displayed by a vic
tim of vaccination that could show you.
The preservation Of the State may Justify
State should be absolutely certain that the
means are adequate before they are inflicted.
The State may take the citizens money and
inhict him with poverty If need be, but no con-
dition of the State, however extreme. justiies
Il In manning even one Of Its humblesr sub
jects.
The Wholesale adoption of the English health
laws, thereby constituting the Board of Health
an autocrat OF the most despotic character, is
totally un-American. The means and methods
OF century back are not applicable to the en-
lightened condition of America to-day and the
sooner we inquire whether there is not better
way to manage smallpox than by vaccination
the sooner will we escape the condemnation of
modern intelligence. 2. T. MILLER, M. d,
SoUTHsIDE, August 10.