St. Paul daily globe., 1891-06-21
DEADLY VACCINATION
Causes Leprosy and Many Ills
Mouse tTs,op Meath

Causes Leprosy and Many Ills
Worse Than Death.
To the Editor of the Globe:
Of the fact that there is a limit to the
contagiousness of leprosy. and that it is
most surely spread by inoculation or
vaccination, there is no longer any doubt.
The London Lancet of June %, 1890,
referring to the theory of contagion in
connection with the spread of leprosy.
says: But there are conditions and
limits to contagion; probably it occurs
only through incubation" The British
Medical Journal of October IL, 1890,
notes that many of the highest medical
authorities in India consider the evil
dence, SO far obtainable, as going to
show that leprosy is only contagious
in the sense that it is inoculable.
Inoculation can take place in various
ways, but in no way so easily or with
such certainty as at the point of the
lancet by vaccination, and vaccination
is believed to have been a prolific cause
of the increase of leproSy both in the
Sandwich islands, the Leeward, Wind
ward and Virgin islands of the West
Indies and in British Guiana. a great
number of particulars of leprosy cases
that are due to vaccination have been
furnished by well-known British ply
Sicians. None Of them have spoken
more emphatically on the subject than
DR.. Castor, the present medical super
intendent of the leper asylum in Brit
ish Guiana. He reported to the surgeon
general in 1887 that it is "a palpahle
fact, which should be made known far
and wide in countries where leprosy is
endemic and widespread as with US,
that there is every certainty of inocula-
tion through vaccination" In the Brit
ish Medical journal DR.. Hogan, a sci
entific authority, and bacteriologist
who has devoted much attention to the
subject, considers vaccination reSpOHSi-
bic for much of the recent alarming III
crease, and regards the vaccine virus as
a f1uX by means Of which the leprR
bacilli are easily conveyed to the blood
more easily than by any other mode Of
transmission. William Tebb,o of London,
addressed an open letter to the gen
eral public on this mOmentouS
subject, in which, after collecting and
colIating the known facts of the case,
he says it is obvious that the law en-
forcing vaccination in all leprous cOun-
tries ought TO be abolished. and that
vaccination, which has been shown by
the abest authorities before the royal
commission TO have no effect in prevent
ing or mitigating smallpox, should Se
discouraged by medical officers OF
health and those who are concerned for
the well-being of the community. A
bin has recently been introduced into
the legislative assembly of Hawaii to
repeal the vaccination law on the
ground that vaccination inoculates
and spreads leprosy in these
islands. There are about sixty towns
la in nd
Mr.. Tebb states, where the vaccination
law is dead letter. The vaccination
laws have been abolished in most of the
Swiss .cantons, and have lately been
suspended in the Australian colony OF
Tasmania, by reason of their deleterious
effects on the health of the people. In
the colonies of New South Wales and
Queensland, Australia, and in the island
of Barbados, the people have success
fully resisted every attempt to impose
the hotly-disputed Jennerian dogma
upon them. A leprosy commission is
now passing from place to place in
India, that proposes to pursue its in
quiries for about year, and then draw
up detailed report with its conclu-
SiOnS and recommendations.
Every attempt, according to William
Tebb, to introduce compulsory vaccina-
tion into the DopulouS island of Barba-
does has been thwarted, IN consequence
OF the belief that leprosy and syphilis
are inoculated with the vaccine virus. In
ST. Thomas and in Georgetown it has
been found practically impossible to en-
force the vaccination law for similar
reasons.
But we, who hold ourselves so far
ahead of all these places in civillza-
ton, still keep up this questionable
Ito call it by no baseless name) practice.
and expose ourselves and our children
to not only all the diseases in the cata-
logue, but to a complication that often
results IN worse that death. K.
st. Paul, June 90.