Arizona weekly citizen., 1893-11-11
VACCINATION AND SMALLPOX

If the truth were known it would
 probably appear that vaccination has
 not accomplished all that Jenner hoped
 for it. Seeing his discovery so univer-
 sally accepted at the outset, seeing it
 nip epidemics Cf smallpox in the bud,
 and so vastly reduce the mortality with
 in few years, he would have been
 strangely unimaginative had he not
 dreamed of 8 day when vaccination
 should so fully have triumphed as to
 have banished smallpox from the world
 forever. In theory such hope found
 ample warrant. The human body fur
 nishes the only soil, so far as known, on
 which the germs of this disease can
 multipl8y and retain their virulence.
 Vaccination renders the body no longer
 habitable for these germs. If therefore
 the entire race could be given immu-i- ty through vaccination, time being allowed for the destruction of such l unproductive germs as had found tenn porary lodgement elsewhere than in the | body, smallpox would cease to exist.
 Its last germ killed, there is DO more
 reason to suppose that it would ever
 originate again, than there is to expect
 the resppearance of the great auk, the
 mammoth, or the glyptodon. In theory
 such an achievement might require but
 a month or a year, but in reality century has not accomplished it.
 The chief reason why vaccination has failed of this ultimate ideal achieve ment is is-paradoxical though it sounds because yacciret on has operated so efficiently. So nearly has it banished smallpox tEst DO one now fears that desease, and a general carelessness prevails regarding it. No better con- mentary in this regard could be made than mention of the fact that two $ physicians recently contracted the 3 disease in New York from a case which came to dispensary where they were in attendance. If physicians fail to give themselves immunity, what shall r we expect of the public as large?
 The other chief factor which CO., operates with carelessness to keep c smallpox in existence IS ignorance. So
 little is small pox heard of now that n ny among the more ignorant classes scarcely know the meaning of vacciua- Il ion. Health officers fird many persons U Fho suppose they are being vaccinated l. o s'cleanse the blood" It does not u natter much what they think, perhaps, '' 70 long as they submit to the operation. S' But many decline the boon, ard these of c course remain susceptible to the disease. c' Dur laws offer protection to all, but
 orce it upon DO one. Abroad Tn many n' places vaccination is compulsory, a fine Id ,eing imposed if any child is found ln at 8 certain age. The !" esult thus aimed at is accomplished in Ia bis country in more pleasant way by u' unvaccinated children from 'n ttendance upon the public schools. cl 'his measure, together with the constant ni olicitations of health officers, results in WI he vaccination of 8 very large propor- th ion of infants. U But vaccination in infancy is not n nough. It gives immunity for a time, ao ut with growth the tissues change, and au fter few years the body becomes ol gain susceptible. Revaccination must Di e practised when the child is six or or sven years old, and again during lnl dolescence. Even this third vaccina
 on does not always give protection o7 life. Immunity should be to ,sted every few years by repeated 'n .oo;no+;ons ond only noreons who tic ave submitted to this test within few RI ears past can at any time feel fully '1 ssured that they are insusceptible to WI mall-pox. Ignorance of this fact is su ,ost potent in giving smallpox A hold " pon the community. Not alone the oi ynarant, but many people of intelli- .ie ence suppose that so long as the scar M f a previous vaccination appears they pa re immune, and with confidence born 0' this delusional belief, go about the go orld almost as susceptible to small It OK as if they had never been vaccln sted. 'a or such persons chiefly the present iic orcs, with their obvious moral, are az ltended. d.-Harpers Weekly. "'
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