Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-13
Matters Discussed at the Session of
the Conference Today.
4 NATIONAL BOARD IN WASHINGTON
Legislation to This End Will Be
Advocated.
DISCUSSION ON VACCINATION

|
conference of the state boards of health
convened in the red parlor Of the Ebbitt
| House at 10 o'clock this morning.
Committee reports were called for upon
reassembling and Dr. Benjamin Lee of
Philadelphia. chairman of the committee
| on assessments, reported that the COM
| mittee recommended that every state and
provincial board of the United States,
| Canada and Mexico be entitled to be rep
| resented in the. conference and that each
| such board should be assessed SIS each an
| nually and that 800 copies of the proceed
| ings Of each meeting be printed for the use
| Of such boards. He also recommended the
| appointment of a special finance commit
| tee to examine into and report upon the
| condition Of the treasury. In the discus
| sion that followed it was evinced that sew
| eral members Of the conference were to-
| tally opposed to paying the expenses of a
| former quarantine commission.
1t was finally decided to postpone the mo-
| ton until the secretary could telegraph to
| the treasurer of the association, DR.. Henry
| Il. Baker, and ascertain how much of the
expenses incurred by the quarantine re-
| main to be paid.
A National Board of Health.
DR.. Henry P. Walcott of Massachusetts,,
who was appointed a committee of one at
last nights session to report upon just what
national health legislation Is most impor-
tant at the present time, reported a resolu-
ton reciting that, in the opinion of the
meeting, 1t is essential to the proper pro-
lection Of the whole people that there be
established in Washington a national
health authority exclusively devoted to
questions of public health; that the pro-
posed legislation should be such as to Sc
cure for the national authority the sanitary
knowledge and the hearty cooperation OF
existing organizations, and that the con-
ference pledges itself to the support Of any
legislation which is adapted to the accom-
plishment of these results.
The resolution was unanimously adopted
and tho conference then listened to an ad-
dress by Dr. J. w. Scott of Illinois upon
the question submitted by the state board
Of health OF Wisconsin: Shall the state
| maintain supervision of the propagation Of
vaccine virus"' DR.. Scotts paper was
very interesting one and a strong argu-
ment In favor Of the state supervision OF
| the important branch of medicine under
consideration.
The Question of Vaccination.
Referring to the arguments Of Prof
| Crookshank Of Kings College, London,
against the use of vaccination on the
ground of the carelessness surrounding its
operation, DR.. Scott said that 1t was time
for health authorities and sanitarians to
address themselves to an investigation of
the cause or causes of such adverse con-
clusions and to measures for their re-
| moval.
1T is hardly necessary" said Dr. Scott
to dwell upon the flaw in Prof. Crook
shanks argument-that 1T is a fragrant
petitio-principii to assume that yaccina-
ton is vaccination, no matter how per-
formed Or with what material. That is a
nav IN MS argument as an argument; but
| the fact remains that the profession and
the public have come to regard anything
as vaccination in which the skin is
abraded. no matter how, and something is
rubbed on the abrasion no matter what,
SO 1t is called vaccine.
Some Practices Condemned,
1T is not necessary to take any stock in
newspaper stories Of points dipped in a
mixture Of croton oil and egg albumen.
gelatin or mucilage, but l presume every
member present has duplicated my own ex-
perience In his examination of the vaccine
points of commerce. A superficial inspec-
tlon mas frequently detected blood stains
anu even grosser impurities, while the
microscope mas revealed the presence of
corpuscular elements blood and pus cells
&C, which are foreign to the pure lymph
As to the technique of the operation itself.
I Know OF nothing better calculated to
brins vaccination into disrepute than the
methods l have seen employed in some To-
callties during the past year. Large bleed
ing surfaces, often produced by scrapinR
exposed TO the micro-beladen atmosphere
Oh crowded dlspensary or vaccination
bureau; total disregard of the most ordi-
nary aseptic precautions, either before or
AFTER the operation; no adequate examine
tion as TO the condition of the subject bur
an lndiscriminate cutting, scraping or
scratching of every individual presented
healthy or diseased, pure blooded or scrofu.
, nn,H or even syphilitic for all the vacci-
The wonder Is not that undue infiam-
mauon, septic Infection, erysipelas-un-
doubtedly destructive Of VAGINAL protec-
ISin llvy I,,t
cur SO seldom, and the curse of il ALI ia
that the unfortunate believes that he has
been vaccinallX protected. and when he
comes down with the smallpox his large,
unsightly cicatrix is cited as another proof
OF the failure Of vaccination"
DIR. COchrnn's Plain Speaking.
In the discussion which followed MANY
interesting facts were brought out about
the manner in which bovine vaccine mat
ter is grown and prepared, and DR.. Cochran
of Mobile created something Of a sensation
by declaring that the minute details sup
posed to be necessa airy in preparing vaccine
points We're of no whatever. He de-
clared that antiseptlcism had run mad
among the members of the medical profess
sion and they were carrying something
that was largely experimental and about
which nothing of certainty was known
entirely too far. He stated that the hu-
man vaccine scab was used exclusively in
this country before the war with excellent
results, and explained that it was not con-
crete pus, as many supposed, but concrete
lymph.
He startled the assemblage by declaring
bis belief that a scab from the vaccinated
arm of person afflicted with syphilis
could be used to vaccmate another person,
without fear of giving the latter the
disease. He also said he could tell by look
ing at a detached vaccine scab whether
the person from whom it was taken was a
blonde, brunette or a negro, merely by the
depth of color assumed by it.
Other delegates Joined in and most OF
them believed that while the states should
undertake the supervision of vaccine farms
where they may be established, the owner
ship of such establishments by the COM
monwealth was not deemed altogether
necessary.
A State Supervision Resolution.
Dr. Lame of California introduced a
resolution that states should, as far as
practicable, exercise supervision of vac
cine farms, and of the methods for propa-
eating vaccine virus, and that the supply
should be obtained from farms that meet
the approval of local state boards of health.
This was unanimously passed. On mo-
ill.,