The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-01-21
SMALLPOX PREVENTED
BY VACCINATION

I chased from different points in open
market quantities of vaccine which.
after exhaustive tests, were found per-
fectly pure and incapable of producing
lockjaw In either person or animals.
Then when we remember that the
germs of lockjaw get into the body
through sores and wounds which are
carelessly exposed to dust. soiled cloth
ing and unclean fingers it seems fair to
assume that the reported cases OF lock-
Jaw were If indirectly due TO vaccina-
ton, the result of carelessly treating
the resultant sores. And as to why
Camden should furnish a majority of
these regrettable cases, it might be
reasonably accounted for by the fact
that certain conditions of the soil in
some localities are more favorable to
! the occurrence of lockjaw than in
| others. Long Island for years has had
q reputation as such, the victims being
chiefly among ditch-diggers and other
workers in the soil.
But this is q fact plain to every one:
| The total number of deaths for all past
Z! years due to vaccination is not one to
| a million caused by smallpox, and not
one death from vaccination to 10000
| 900 vaccinated. During my thirty-four
years of practice l have yet to find one
single case of lockjaw, erysipelas blood
| poisoning or other complication as the
result of vaccination. / am positive
| that medical records contain few, il
| any, cases where 1t has been proved
| that lockiaw was caused by vaccina-
| ton. Even though a few lives must be
sacrificed through carelessness in ef-
! forts to afford protection to the mill
| ions of the earth, is it a Just reason
why vaccination should be denounced
as harmful and dangerous? We might
as well endeavor to suspend railroad
| traffic because of the number of fatal
| tiles.
| Vaccination must not even in the
| slightest measure be allowed to fall into
disrepute. 1t is absolutely free from
| danger when performed with the de-
gree of care common with the use of
| any treatment observed by any legitl-
mate physician, and when due care is
| afterwards taken by the patient to
| protect the sore from contamination.
| Furthermore, it is our only safeguard
against the appalling ravages of small
| poX; and were it to be discontinued for
even the period of ten years there is
every reason to believe that smallpox
would ravage the earth with it's in
creased and congested population, para
| lyze all business and progress. and
| leave us worse than the people of for
| mer ages.
| Any reasonable person can compare
| this loathsome disease with any of the
earth's plaques and then but dimly
estimate the horrors of it, if not fought
| as it now is and has been. the past
| hundred years. Unlike the cholera, the
plague of India or our much dreaded
| yellow fever, it thrives in any climate,
and appears in localities divergently,
perhaps on the opposite sides of the
globe simultaneously, or perhaps may
| exist in Maine and California and
| Michigan and Florida at the same time
without the least reasonable evidence
of contagion between the localities.
| No climate or country is safe from it.
| 1t is the duty of every member of the
medical profession diligently to present
such facts and reasoning, and clearly
| more so the duty of every citizen TO
most heartily cooperate. If mishaps in
| this earnest effort must be reported, let
| it be done honestly, without prejudice
and with a disposition to assist in the
| unselish work, rather than to eXagger-
ate and create distrust.
| Smallpox is the earth's greatest
menace.
Vaccination is the earth's greatest
| ally and material friend.
d. e. Hand, NJ d.
| Scranton, January 20,