The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-03-04

NAS SAASA 49, - $780,
then President, who fully understood the
ravages OF the disease among the black
population.
Jenner vaccinated all who came TO him.
There were sometimes 900 waiting at his
! door. He would have become impover-
I ished had it not been for liberal grants
! by Parliament. He sent out lymph TO
| the ends Of the world, and carried on a
wide correspondence. He became, in his
own words, Vaccine clerk TO the world. z
He died on January rs, 1923, and was
buried in the village church, the offer of a
! grave in Westminster Abbey having been
declined by his family. He was modest
; and fond of a quiet life and simple pleas
urcs; a man of great practical sagacity
as we'll as originality Of mind.
The faith in vaccination and the honor
in which Jenner was held by his own
generation. who understood smallpox 50
| well, is shown by the fact that Parlia-
ment twice voted him grants of money
amounting to 80, 900 pounds, while Napo-
leon, the bitter foe of the English, liber-
ated prisoners at his request.
To comprehend what vaccination has
| done for the world, we must understand
what smallpox was when Jenner an
nounced his great discovery. It's extreme
contagiousn6ss, it's excessive rate Of
mortality, it's loathsome character, and
the manning and disagreement it left
behind Combined to make it the most
serious Scourge from which the race has
suffered. 1t has been justly described as
the Attila of diseases, the very scourge
of God, Oyerrunning countries and de-
stroying whole populations" When Jen-
rer performed his first vaccination in
1-Da 49, 49, -, -
all the deaths of the human race. Ber-
%rouilli, the mathematician, estimated
that more than go, 900 900 of the inhabi-
taEts of Europe died from smallpox dur
ing the eighteenth century, being an av-
erage Of 900, 1000 a year. Others place the
number even higher. Specific proof of its
: tality is shown by Cowan'S vital sta
tiStics of Glasgow. He states that be-
tween 1888 and 1892, SO per cent of all
the deaths under ten years were due TO
smallpox, and between 1893 and 1902. g.
per cent were due to the cause. These
are no uncommon figures, for it was as
serted by others that One-third OF all
deaths under ten years were due 70
smallpox. 1t was estimated by Conda-
nine that this foul disease destroyed or
disfigured the fourth part of mankind.
When the smallpox was introduced into
Mexico by the Spaniards in 1920. $780,
GOO died within a few years. In 1877. 10
per cent OF the people of Greenland died
Of smallpox. In 1907, in Iceland, 5000
in a population Of $4,000 died in a single
year. 1t is believed that 5000, 900 North
American Indians fell victims to it's raw
ages. 1t has done more to exterminate
the aborigines of this continent than any
other cause. In 1887 the destruction of
1ifp wa aOOrrnOIIS whole trihoC hpinO on
terminated.
1t will surprise many to know that in
former times smallpox was essentially a
disease of childhood, over 80 per cent OF
all cases occurring in children III der five
years. AS vaccination is done chiefly in
infancy and childhood, it is a strong
proof of its efficacy that the occurrence
of the disease has been transferred from
childhood to adult life, when immunity
has been exhausted.
Let us now consider the history of
smallpox since Jenner's time ana COM
pare it with previous conditions. In
England, it has been estimated that in
1860 the average annual number Of deaths
per million from smallpox was 4,l1o. DR..
Farr the rate PCr million at
1850 for the thirty years from 1928 to
1857. Official registration of the causes
VI utdIn DtSdu III 1890. lidt N'di
to 1854, a period of optional vaccination,
the average rate per million was $50.
From 1854 to 1894. a period Of enjoined
vaccination. the rate for the whole period
was 40. From 1872 to 1894, the laws
were more rigid, and the rate was SC.
Excluding the epidemic of 1872, it was
but 80. In the fourteen years preceding
1872, the average death rate from small
poN in the British army per leo, 900
strength was Ill; for twenty-five years
after that date, 81. This was rendered
even higher by the loss in 1889 of twenty
three men in India. In 1895. in a popula-
ton of over 1900. 0G0, there were 90
deaths from smallpox in London. With
less than one-fourth that population, SiI
J.. Simon states that during the eighteenth
century the annual smallpox death rate
OF London ranged from 5000 to 5000.
Sweden furnishes some particularly
valuable facts, for excellent records have
been kept since 1774. 1744 and
1901. the average smallpox mortality per
million living was 2,045. During fifteen
years GS02 to 1870 of optional vaccina-
ton the average mortality was 40S, and
for scventy-scven years of compulsory
vaccination it averaged 135.. During the
ten years from 1884 to 1898 (the latest
L CNoih L N"i ~ Nh'SA pthi A'OA
rigid laws, there was no year in which
the rate per million was above five; it
was in one year as low as OF. In the
tWenty-eight years before 1901, the rate
was over 900 in eighteen different
years, reaching in 1873 the enormous fig
ure of 1886. Since 1901 it has been be-
low 100 in forty-six different years, and
below ten in fifteen different years.
Attempt has been made by antivac-
cinatioEists to minimize the value of
these remarkable figures by the theory
that there was a natural decline in small
pox before vaccination had been adopted.
The facts are, however, that vaccination
was taken up in Sweden with the utmost
enthusiasm. It is known that in 1902,
eighty physicians had lymph in their pos
sessions. In 1904, royal orders required
vaccination by means of the pastors of
chuches, while in the following year the
Royal College alone reported %, 10000 vac
cinaticns. 1t certainly requires great
credulity to believe that the rapid fall in
the mortality rate from 2,045 to $50 was
due to a change in the character of the