Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1899-02-02

while there is so little danger from this
source that it may be disregarded, yet
the object of the yirusmakers is to keep
it as free as possible from foreign bac-
terra. The purest virus is that put up
in another form. This undergoes the
same sterilizing process as the points,
only it is poured into capillary tubes,
which are Theoretically sealed and
when used the tube is broken and the
virus blown Oh the abraised flesh.
RESULT OF VACCINATION
This virus in whichever form must be
used when fresh. Just how long vaccine
| retains the power of incubation is a
question not definitely settled, but ply
sicians are agreed that it should not be
used longer than eighteen days after
being extracted from the calf. AS a
matter of fact, all first class establish
ments give definite instructions TO drug
gists handling the virus to return it as
soon as il is fifteen days old.
| AS to the result of vaccination and
its effect on different constitutions there
is some interesting information. AS a
general thing it may be stated that from
three to nine days after the operation it
| produces in the patient modified form
of cowpox.
| Many of the best physians now refuse
to use the virus points and will not vac
cinate the patient with anything but the
| liquid virus. These doctors also no longer
'scarify" or abuse the flesh in order to
vaccinate, but administer the virus by
| hypodermic injection. The matter is
| placed in regular hypodermic syringe,
the skin is punctured with the needle
of the instrument and the germs are
thrown at once into the blood. The adj
vantages of that plan are that the oper-
alton is not painful and the period of
incubation is fastened. 1t is also said
that the scar left IS not so large and
distinct as in the case where the surface
is cut or scratched to receive the virus,
which is neither dangerous nor painful,
although there are cases on record
in which it produced almost every symp-
tom and inconvenience of smallpox. but
the cases are so rare that they scarcely
deserve consideration.
Repeated efforts at vaccination have
failed on certain persons, who were pro-
nounced immune" by the physicians,
and yet on the first exposure fell victims
to the disease. The better opinion is
that no one is really exempt from the
contagion of smallpox, not even those
who have been successfully vaccinated,
but in that case the disease produces
only varioloid, or form of the malady
so mild as to be shorn of its terrors.
The question has often been discussed
as to whether vaccination after exposure
to smallpox would prove efficacious, and
an eminent physician makes this state
ment: "If I were exposed on Monday
and vaccinated on Tuesday the result
would be satisfactory; but if / were
vaccinated on Wednesday the result
would not be so good, while if l waited
until Friday it would do no good at all"
The same authority says that he has
tried administering virus internally, but
that the operation was barren Of results.
Some years ago erysipelas frequently
accompanied vaccination and there are
cases on record in which death was
speedily produced by it, to say nothing
of the amputations rendered necessary.
But in ali of these cases virus from
diseased animal or person had been
used. These unfortunate results led to
the abandonment of human virus and
so the adoption of the greater precau-
tions in procuring as pure vaccine mat
ter as science can produce. But even
after these precautions il the virus is
allowed to become stale there is always
danger of septic decomposition in the
matter itself, and hence the precautions
taken in having it returned before it can
become infected.
From all of this the conclusion may
| be drawn that whatever mistakes were
formerly made in vaccination and the
dangers incurred thereby they have
been so minimized by science and skill
that today vaccination is absolutely
harmless yet potent detergent of all of
the dread horrors with which loath-
some disease once scourged defenseless
world.