Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-05-28
THB RIGHT SIDE or
AN UNSETTLED QUESTION.
the Editor of the Register:

Sir:-That now professional readers
may the better understand the follow
ing article, we here insert the meaning
OF some of the technical terms used
Vaccine is word derived from vacca,
which signifies COW; and vaccine virus /
is morbid or poisonous mater taken
from an infectious sore, or peck, OF the
COW. Vaccination is the act OF inocu-
latlng the human system with the NOR
bid or infectious matter Of COW pox
Variola signifies small pox; varioloid
signifies resembling smallpox.
Vaccination is properly a medical
question. Ii allowed to rest on its mer-
its alone. as it ought, and no conpul-
sion or coercion was ever ATTEMPTED it
would not then be a crime. Direct
compulsion is now rarely attempted, as
1t is generally admitted that every
healthy and upright citizen has an I'M
doubted right to care for and preserve
his own body. Not according to the
will OF another, but according to his
own conception of truth and duty. His
body, so far as his health is con
cerned, belongs only to himself and not
to the authorities. The authorities
cannot rightfully touch his body so
long as he does not infringe upon the
rights OF OtlerS.
PERSONAL rights are sacred, and no
personal right is more sacred than the
right to guard and defend ones own
body from all injury. Now vaccination
endangers, at least to some degree, the
life Of every person vaccinated, and
every citizen has, therefore, the right
to defend his person from the attack
OF the vaccinator as he has from the
hand of the assassin. This once under
stood puts an end to compulsory vac
cination. 1t is a direct personal attack
that may be resisted, and it is time Tor
city councils and boards of health to
understand that every act requiring
vaccination is an act OF tyranny to De
resisted by every free-born and liberty
loving citizen. If the individual has
the right of free choice, then we have
no right to deprive him of any privi-
lege on account of exercising his
choice. Every upright citizen has the
undoubted right, without regard to h S
own person, medical or religious tenets,
to enjoy the privileges OF our public
schools, and the exclusion OF unvaccin-
ated children from public schools, or
the requirement of vaccination by en-
ployers as a condition of employment,
is form of compulsion that threatens
not only the health and longevity OF
the people by the subversion of their
political rights also, and lays them I'M
der triple obligations to know for them
selves the merits of this great question.
| AS to bias of judgment, it is perhaps
enough to say that the members OF
| the medical profession are human; and
when we come to consider that yaccin-
alton involves the transfer of millions
of dollars annually from the pockets
of the people to the members of the
| profession, and that pride Of opinion
alone, aside from mercenary motives,
might be sufficient to prevent the open
acknowledgment and abandonment OF
such Stupendous errors and fatal NAL
| practices as vaccination is known to
be by thousands of investigators, we
can plainly see that as a people we
must investigate and judge for our
selves. No one can prove that vaccin-
alton ever did or can, in a single in
stance, prevent or mitigate smallpox.
To do so he must be able to show,
first, that one or more persons will
certainly have smallpox unless vac
cinated, which no one indeed can show
1t is useless to claim that physicians
can tell beforehand that any one will
ever have smallpox, whether vaccin-
ated or not, and much less can they
tell beforehand what will be the de-
gree of malignancy or the severity of
the attack in any single case; and if
they cannot prove that any one will
have smallpox at all with vaccination.
how can they prove that vaccination
ever prevents? And if they cannot
prove beforehand what will be the de-
gree of severity of any attack that may
occur, how can they prove that vac
cination ever mitigates?
No person can possibly prove that
vaccination ever prevents smallpox,
Tor the reason that no one is able to
snow IN advance that any person would
ever have smallpox following vaccin-
alton would have been worse or better
without vaccination is impossible 10
know or prove unless we can know and
prove beforehand what the severity of
the case would be without vaccination.
which is impossible. We cannot in
the present state of medical science,
predict an attack, or the degree of
severity Of the disease, nor can we
eliminate all sources of error in reach
ing correct conclusions by way Of ex-
periments. Please consider this. 1t is
positive evidence to one who can and
will reason that by no possibility can
any benefit from vaccination be proved
We know that the profession appeals
TO statistics, but these are unfortunate
as proof. for two reasons: first the
statistics are prepared by the profess
sion itself. and that fact makes the
evidence ex-parte, and so invalidates
it; that vaccination prevents small
pox, the more intelligent of the profess
sion no longer claim. The proof that
the theory of prevention as espoused
by Jenner, has been everywhere aban-
doned is found in the fact that the
vaccinists admit the necessity of re-
vaccination, but do not agree on the
period that may be allowed or is nee
essary between successive re-vaccina-
tiors; and we have further proof that
they have no confidence themselves in
vaccination or even in re-vaccination
in the fact that they advocate compul-
sorry vaccination, which is entirely IN
necessary, if their own theories of
safety are true.
If we accept the theory of the vaccin-
lists that efficient vaccination and re-
vaccination are in any degree, then all
who so believe may have the full bene-
fits of vaccine virus without reference
to whether Others receive the same or