Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1899-06-20
-
itself editorially ON the vaccination

question:
There is something disheartening to
scientists in the retrograde movement
now taking place in England with re-
gard to vaccination. Thirty-one years
ago vaccination was made compulsory
in England, and it was supposed that
the law was a permanent one, but the
agitation against vaccination has been
so persistent, one feels like saving,
malignant, that bill has passed in
the House of Commons containing
what is known asa conscience clause"
to the effect "That no parentor other
person shall be liable to any penalty
under the vaccination act of 1867, if
he satisfies justices in petty sessions
that he conScientiously believes vacci-
nation will be prejudicial to the health
of the child" This is practically
equivalent to a repeal of the entire
vaccination act. This strange step has
aroused the doctors as body to in
minority of medical men who main
tain that vaccination may perhaps
spread disease: the two royal medical
colleges are opposing the conscience
clause in no uncertain terms. To the
non-medical man the fact that small
poX epidemicS are unknown where
compulsory vaccination has been in
force is sufficient demonstration
of the beniticence of the
law. Most, if not all, of the opposit-
ion to vaccination has come from the
the unenlightened, the uneducated,
the lnintelligent, the ''cranks" of the
community. These are the people
who, as GLASS, are most likely to start
and spread an epidemic of smallpox.
In England there is tenderness of
the rights of the individual even
against the rights of society as whole
that is responsible in large part for
the success of the present movement.
DIR. w. b. Clarke, of indianapolis, at
once replied to the above, but, with
the characteristic independence" the
Ne,rs is so fond of boasting of, his an
swer was not allowed to appear. He
retained a rough draft of his reply, by
which we are enabled to place it be-
fore cur readers:
Editor Indianapolis Ne,cs: Two
statements in your editorial on vacci-
nation demand attention, viz. Q.)
'ssMost, if not all, of the opposition to
Vaccination has come from the unedu-
Gated, the unintelligent, the 'cranks'
of the community" On the contrary
the effective opposition to yaccina ton
has come from just the opposite class,
practical scientific men of great at
tainment, who have written largely.
after thorough personal inyes tigation,
who ''trst came to scott, remained to
pray" A few only of the host need be
mentioned, simply by wayof examples:
DR.. Charles Creighton, author of sew
eral works on the subject, especially
"Jenner and Vaccination" and the
article SVaccination" in the latest
edition of the Encyclopedia Britain
Mica, was demonstration of anatomy at
Cambridge University and surgeon to
| ST Georges Hospital, London. DR..
e. NJ. Crookshank, author of History
and Pathology of Vaccination, "a mas
ter bacteriologiSt oft quoted, is pro-
fessor of bacteriology and compa rative
pathology in Kings College, London.
I, William Whites great and fascinat-
ing book 'The Story of Il Great De-
lusion, a classic, might we'll be term
ed the Bible of the ants. DR.. Perron,
of the French Legion of Honor. DR..
u Caron, prison physician of Paris, and
DR.. Boens, government physician,
Brussels (recently deceasedl, have
written largely. William Tebb's
"Recrudescence of Leprosy" because
of vaccination, DR.. Garth Wilkinson'S
Tracts, Prof. Pickerings sanitation
, or Vaccination, and many other En-
English writer's, such as sHerbert Spen
Ger, A. r. Wallace and p. A. Taylor
I nj. p, should be mentioned, as we'll a.
DR.. c. kolb, of the Royal statistica
commission, Bavaria, and DR.. A. Nogt
professor of hygiene and sanitary sta
D tistics at'Berne. DR.. a. NJ. Ross, o