Evening star., 1899-07-08

been removed. to an island near San Juan
or put into hospitals apart from the rest
of the people. The poor among the Porto
Ricans herd together in such a way that it
is a wonder the whole island is not infected
with the disease. l will describe their life
later. At present l believe there are no
smallpox cases left.
The most remarkable thing in connection
with the smallpox was the vaccination of
the whole population under our army sur
geons. When | arrived in San Juan every
man. woman and child had sore arms. saw
sore arms on every country road. Sore-arm-
ed men worked in the fields, sore-armed wo-
men stood at the doors of the houses with
sore-armed babies in their arms, and | saw
them by hundreds in every city and village
as l Travelled through the interior. / ven-
ture that there were at least 100000 sore
arms here at that time.
In many cases the vaccination took so
seriously as to make large scars, and it
was not uncommon to see babies with sea bS
on their arms as big as quarter of a dol
lar. In going through the poorest quarters
of the cities and studying the life there
pretended at times to be government in
spector, and took a look at the arms of the
people as an excuse for entering the
houses to see how they lived. and l failed
to find any who We're not more or less
afflicted.
Biggest Vaccination job Earth.
The vaccination of this enormous number
within a few weeks was one of the great
feats of modern surgery. A few months
after Uncle Sam took possession it was
found that smallpox had broken out and
that only a few in every thousand of the
population had been vaccinatad. 1t was de-
cided that all must be inocculated at once
Major AZel Ames one of our army sur
geons was chosen to take charge of the
work, and he has accomplished it in way
that will be one of the wonders of medical
history.
In the first place. regulations were sent
out providing that a man could not get
work or do business Of any kind unless
ne was vaccinated, and that all the people
must come to certain stations over the
island and submit their arms to be scratch
ed. The penalties were such that they
came in hordes, and today / doubt If there
hundred unvaccinated men, women
and children on the island.
The work was carried on largely by the
native doctors, under the direction of our
surgeons, and thousands were treated in
a day. In cases where the first vaccination
did not take, second vaccination was re-
quired, and all told, the vaccinations must
have amounted to more than million.
Vaccinating Cattle for Smallpox.
To supply the vaccine matter for this
work was a serious undertaking. At first
vaccine points by the thousands were i'm
ported from the United States. The long
sea voyage destroyed the virus and Major
kmes found that he would have to make
his own vaccine matter here
For this reason he tried to vaccinate the
Porto Rican cattle, but the results at first
| were unsatisfactory. Our cattle when vac
| cinated develop blisters and sores just like
| those which appear on the arms of human
| beings when SO inoculated. The matter
| which oozes out from these sores Is put
ha Gf
] human beings. The Porto Rican cattle
when vacciaated formed hard round scabs
| without pus. At frs: DR.. Ames thought
| that the operation had been of no effect
! BY squeezing the scabs, however he discov-
cred that they produced drops of vaccine
| matter. and that from these he could make
| the points. required.
| The next thing was to establish a vaccine
| farm. He did this near Coamo Springs anG
in few weeks had here the largest vac
! cine farm on record. He secured about
| 1000 animals ranging from eight months tC
| one year old. The vaccination did not in
| jure the cattle. and the big stock dealers OF
! the island furnished them for nothing or
| the simple condition that they were to bt
returned in good order.
| Each of the animals was first examined
to whether it had tuberculosis or othe!
diseases. Its temperature was taken agair
and again. and it was given a place OF
the government record. When vaccinated
it was numbered with a zinc tag and tn,
| number of vaccine points which were mad
from it were marked to correspond will
this tag, that an exact record of ever.
point could be had
On Uncle Sans Vaccine Farm.
During my stay at Coamo Springs
learned something of how the beasts wer
vaccinated. Each animal, after being test
ed and found free from disease, is brough
up beside a folding table, the top of whic
| stands perpendicularly against the side O
the animal. The beast is now tied to tn
table and by twist the top Is raised an
laid horizontally on the legs Of the tabl
with the beast on top of 1t.
Now the doctors shave all the hair from
place as big as your two hands on one sid
of the belly, exposing the skin. which is a
| soft and tender as that of child. This
| scraped for time with sharp knife unit
| the blood shows through the skin and upo
| the sore spot the vaccine matter Is rubbed
| The animal is then turned over and spc
upon it's other side is vaccnated in tn
same way.
1t is found that nearly all the animal
take, and DR.. Ames tells me he has obtair
ed as many as 1000 points from a singl
beast. One of the queer things about tn
farm is the method of distinguishing til
; cattle vaccinated from day to day Tnos
. which are treated one day have their horr
painted red, those of the next day hay
! their horns painted blue and those of til
, | third day yellow. In this way the grouI
can be easily distinguished and the vaccir
matter gathered at just the right time
FRANK G. CARPENTER.
Sepms Kind nf