The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-11-05
The Question of Vaccination.

J
J near Philadelphia Mount Holly beins
one of the places where the matter ha'
received especial attention. Owing to the
fact that there has been opposition to the
operation in some quarters the idea has
gained that homeopathists object to vac
cination This is not so. The November
number of the 'fHahnemannian Monthly, .
the leading paper of the homeopathic
profession, contains an editorial in which
the views of the opponents of vaccination
are carefully examined and discussed.
The editorial in part is as follows;
''The arguments advanced against vac
cination may be summarized as follows :
1. Vaccination is not a preventive of small
pox it does not even mitigate the sever
! ity of the disease g Its practice intro
duces an unhealthy virus, capable OF I'M
limited ill-effects into the system. 3. Vac
cination produces tetanus, erysipelas, can
Ger, etc. 4. Vaccination owes its popular
ity entirely to the fact that it puts money
into physicians pockets.
''To any one who has studied medical
literature with unbiased mind, these OBJ
jections must be regarded as either I'M
truthful or silly The present spread Of
small pox in various parts of the country
shows conclusively the necessity for some
decided action. Especially should we, as
homeopathists, place ourselves on record.
Hahnemann believed in vaccination as a
preventive of small-po AS to the
ravages of smallpox in prevaccination
times statistics demonstrate that fully
two-thirds of all children born were soon
er or later taken with smallpox of whom
about one eighth died. The average an
nual death rate from small pox in England
was 3 900 per million of population.
"Note the change at the present day
Whereas small pox formerly attacked
children, now, by reason of the better pro-
lection afforded by the efficient vaccina-
ton at that time of life, the majority of
cases are in adults.
at is useless to multiply statistics, for
one and all teach the same lesson. We
cannot recall one medical author of prom
inence who has taken an characterization
position.
"When the Rev. Henry j. Van Lennep,
the eminent Presbyterian author and mis-
sionary, and father of our DR.. William b.
Van Lennep, was in Asia Minor, the town
of Tocat was being decimated by small
pox. MIR. Van Lennep imported some
vaccine, and with it vaccinated his son.
From the scabs thus obtained he VAGINA
ted thousands of natives, not one of whom
contracted small pox; and thus in an in
credibly short space of time he stamped
out the disease.
''The second objection to vaccination is
that it introduces an unhealthy virus into
the system. 1t does introduce virus
into the system but that it is unhealthy
remains to be proven.
''The third objection to vaccination is
that it produces numerous diseases, of
which erysipelas, cancer and tuberculosis
have been specifically instanced. Erysip-
elias can of course, follow vaccination, as
it can any other wound. If however, the
operator observed due care, and if the
subject is guilty of no indiscretions such
an accident is of the greatest rarity. And
this, to our mind, is practically the only
danger arising from vaccination. The
other diseases alleged to arise from vacci-
nation arise from that cause with such
rarity as to make the relation of cause and
effects exceedingly problematical. Take
tetanus, for example. OF five millions
vaccinations in England, there was but |
one case of tetanus. Attempts made to
transmit tuberculosis in this way have
signally failed. The spread of cancer has
been attributed to vaccination. Now, the
only increase in cancer relates to the inter
nal disease. External cancer is no more
frequent than it ever was.
THAT vaccination is opposed to home
opathy we deny. Sufficient reason for
our denial is found in the facts and in the
writings of Hahnemann.
THAT vaccination would die out but for
the money it gives the physicians is a
base SANDER on a noble profession. 1t is
a well known fact that physicians vacci
nate themselves, their families and their
servants early in the course of smallpox
epidemics. They do this for protection
for there is no money in it.
''To conclude, we again express our
selves in favor of vaccination as prevent
i've of smallpox; we believe it to be
preventive subject to no danger, except
ing in the hands Of the ignorant and care
less that, if it were more generally prac
ticed, small -pox would become thing of
the past We believe it to be the duty of
all physicians to propagate these truths
among the laity, and to see to it that
those who entrust themselves to their care
are properly protected against humanity's
pox."