Waterbury Democrat., 1902-09-16
WARNING FROM STATE BOARD,
Smallpox Cases Are Expected to Occur
 in Increased Numbers.


 in Increased Numbers. The state board of health yesterday sent out notice of warning to the people of the state concerning small pox. In the opinion of the officials of the state board of health smallpox. will be prevalent this fall and winter and as safeguard against the expect ed invasion general vaccination is urged.
 Secretary Lindsley in the bulletin of the state board of health just out says:
 ''The question of prime importance relating to public health at the present time is the prevention of the spread of smallpox. At no time in the history of the United States has this disease been more generally prevalent. It has occurred within the last few years in every section of the country between it's ocean boundaries As the cold weather approaches and compels the closing of dwellings, schools and fac tories, outbreaks of the pestilence will occur with increasing frequency in the towns and cities that have neglected the only effective means of arrestingi
 
 exceptional mildness of the prevailing epidemic is source of danger, rather than of safety. Its victims are some times so slightly i'll that they travel in the trains, exchange visits with their neighbors, and even the doctors dispute the diagnosis.
 .Innumerable instances of its com munication in this manner are report ad G11a ,1,f-f -fY1n Ijr,fyr Ca 3<<,xM ,xf such instances are wholly impractic- able. The only safety of any individ- ual is by vaccination. The fact of it's protective power is as well settled as any fact in sanitary science. The exhaustive investigation of the whole subject of vaccination by the English royal commission and it's final verdict, the experience of over 100 years in the practice of vaccination throughout the civilized world, and especially the re- Esults in European countries where vaccination is compulsory and the law is enforced, give unanimous testimony to it's safety when properly practiced and to it's protective power.
 Lhe only serious objection urged by the anti-vaccinationists can be avoided by well known means. Nevertheless by the activity of these objecsoss, their interruptions Justification of statl .cs. their unblushing mendacity and their sensational appeals to the fears and the prejudices of the credulous and unin. formed, they have assumed q fearful responsibility in hindering the arrest of smallpox by their opposition to vac cinafion.
 An instance of their misrepresenta- tionse is quite recent. They have an- nounced and widely published that in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, smallpox Lad been stamped out by disinfection and without vaccination. The facts are. however, that instead of being stamped out, it so increased after stop- ping vaccination that Buffalo and other Lake cities felt so much endangered by its prevalence there, that they 'seri- ously considered the adyisability of es- tablishing ayquanantine against if, and threatened that unless immediate ac-. ton be taken and results shown. quar- antine will be instituted in most vig- orous manner
 This threat communicated to the state board of health of Ohio aroused its attention, and ehe Connecticut board was informed by letter last week, from the secretary of the Ohio board, that vaccination is going on at the rate of 10000 per day in Cleveland.
 The general vaccination of com munity is in the interest of the tax payer. The average cost of an epidem- ic of smallpox in town is often many times what it would have cost for full protection from it. And with the epi- denic comes the cost of both. It is well for prudent selectmen and city councils to think of this.v