The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-03-09
DID JOB SUBMIT
To VACCINATIONS
Or. Herring Thinks it is Very
Probable.
GUlZOI AND CHAPMAN
Quotations to Prove Vaccination is
Not Always Efficient.
AN EPIDEMIC OF EIGHTY YEARS AGO
DR., Herring Quotes From Chapman Who Says
Physicians Endeavor 10 Maintain the
Reputation Of Vaccination by
Wrong Methocs.

WIUiS WcitiUISs
To the Editor: AS a contribution to
the Campaign of education | desire to
make quotation, first, from Guizot's
History of France, and then from Chap
map on eruptive fevers.
Guizot, for beauty of diction and ac-
curacy of historical statement easily
stands at the head. Chapman, for wit,
wisdom and mastery of the medical
knowledge of his day had few equals and
no superiors. Guizot's observation is as
applicable to the present day leaders of
thought as in any former period of the
world, and Chapman's accuracy and criti-
Cal analysis of the phenomena of disease
nave not been surpassed either before or
since his day.
In the forties he was one of the shining
lights among the teachers of medicine in
the University of Pennsylvania. and to
this day, certain popular combination
of curative drugs is known as "Chapman's
mixture.
Commenting on the vagaries of human
thought and action, Guizot says: "Of all
human errors those most in vogue are
the most dangerous, for they are those
from which the most superior minds have
the greatest difficulty in preserving
themselves. 1t is impossible to see, with
out horror, into what aberra tions of rea-
son and of moral sense men otherwise
most enlightened and virtuous may be
led away by the predominant ideas of
their age, and the horror becomes still
greater when discovery is made of the
iniquities, sufferings and calamities, pub
- ha cd
mission of such alterations amongst the
choice spirits of the period
In the matter of medical opinion there
is a striking example of the vagaries
which may be fallen into, under the sway
of public feeling, by the most equitable of
minds and the most scrupulous of con-
sciences. For one hundred and twenty
five years incubation for smallpox was
practiced in the civilized world, accen-
tuated by the choicest spirits of the
medical profession and acquiesced in by
public opinion. But there were a few
medical "cranks' who objected to the
operation, and and occasionally lay
man or member of the cloth would enter
his protest
mot wanting, indeed were some who
in the frenzy of fanaticism, went so far
as to pronounce it the invention of satan
himself, and its supporters as sorcerers
and atheists arrayed against the will of
God By one of these Infatuated preach
ers it was gravely declared that inocu-
lation is a very ancient art. first practiced
by the devil on Job, and to which all the
affliction Of that memorable sufferer
were referred This odd conceit how
ever, did not escape animadversion, and
was very appropriately answered by a
wag, at the time, in the following dog
gerel rhymes:
I'VE are told by one of the black robe,
The devil inoculated Job;
Suppose tbs true, what he doth tell,
Pray, neighbors, did not Job do well?'
In my opinion Job got vaccinated either
by milking COW, or by some medical
expert sent out by the sanitary board Of
the bailiwick of Uz. This view of Jobs
distemper is strengthened by Dr. Chap
mans account Of a disease which pre-
vailed throughout the world some eighty
odd years ago, and which | now propose
to give in DR.. Chapman's own words:
THAT vaccination has often proved
inefficient is not now denied even by it's
warmest advocates. To this point evil
dence has, by degrees, accumulated of
such force and certainty as not to be re-
sisted
I'm relation to the, subject, such was
pretty generally the sentiment when a
disease broke out in Europe, which has
led to some new views. and ultimately,
as must be confessed, to a much lower
estimate of vaccination than formally.
This disease seems to have prevailed.
for the first time to any extent, at Edin-
burgh, in the winter of 1918. 1t had pre-
viously shown itself in several provincial
towns OF Scotland. and, though exciting
some curiosity, commanded no serious at
tention. Contemporaneously, or nearly
so, it ragged in England, particularly at
Norwich, as well as on the continent in
France, at Geneva, in Italy, in Holland
and Germany.
"Emanating from these points, it pro-
excessively spread throughout Europe,
scarcely any one portion OF which es-
capped. Crossing the Atlantic, it appear
ed the next year among us, thence in
vaded Mexico, South America and the
Antilles-subsequentl the East Indies,
and seems. in a greater or lesser degree,
to have pervaded the whole world afford
ing an instance of one of the most ex-
teDsive epidemics on record.
1.-The foreign writer's describe it as as
sailing three classes of persons-those
who had passed through smallpox natur-
ally or artificially, those who had been
vaccinated and those who had been sub
jected to neither Of these processes.
by Prof. Thompson, of Edinburgh. an
elaborate treatise has been published.
embracing a formal and systematic his
tory of the disease. In persons having
had neither smallpox nor cowpox the
eruption is represented as preceded by
fever, commonly of great violence, though
sometimes comparatively moderate. con-
tinuing tor three days, and eventuating
in a variolous eruption of various grada-
tions of severity. In those who had pre-
viously had smallpox the eruptive fever,
IN very many, was severe, and in others
SO mild as scarcely to be perceptible The