The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-01-12

dred cases, and out of that number -four
deaths. three of which were complicated
with pneumonia, and the other woman
in child birth Not single child has
died with the ailment; over half the
cases never went to bed and compare
lively few have been very sick.
Vaccinated persons have il the same
as those not vaccinated. One woman, a
Mrs. Moore, had smallpox during the
war, and nursed it in others. Her
daughter who had been successfully
vaccinated, contracted this frogs and
lice" canker and her mother took it
from her and was as sick and as much
broken out as the daughter.
At the last meeting of the Sanitary
Board of Wilson county, Mr.. S. II.
Renfrow made the following statement:
1.-TWO years ago | was living with my
family at Selma, N c. Our children
broke out with chicken pox." My wife
nursed the children-sleeping with them
in her arms She had chicken DO when
child, but l never had it. Both my
self and wife We're successfully vac
cinated after the war, and I was vac
cinated again while our chilren were
broken out with chicken pox. In eleven
days / was delirious with smallpox,
and was confined to bed thirty-four
days My wife was re-vaccinated five
days before / broke out With the dis
ease, but she never took it. / did not
go in the room while the children We're
sick but slept in the same house.
Or. Joshua Tayloe, smallpox expert
of Washington, n c.. told me, after ex-
aiming my scar from vaccination, that
/ could not contract the smallpox. Our
children had not been vaccinated. and
DR.. Tayloe said, the reason the children
only had varioloid was owing to the in
fiuence of the vaccination of myself
and wife after the war"
Now, here is some new light thrown
upon the subject of vaccination which it
is well for -back-number- doctors-to
note, to- wit: That the protective value
of vaccination is transmissible from
parent to offspring-in other words, it
becomes hereditary. Verify medical
science is making strides.
1t had been admitted all along by the
expert diagnosticians that we had both
chicken pox and smallpox, and some
what halfway acquiesced in by the
Ignorant" or back numbered doctors"
until a clash came in family of seven
where two children and the grandfather
broke out. One of these children had
been vaccinated and the other had not
The vaccinated child had the eruption
much worse than the other and all three
got we'll without scars. Hundreds of
cases can be enumerated with similar
histories, but it would add little to thG
evidence.
That a difference of opinion should
exist in the professional mind is to be
deplored, but in a calling as uncertain
and as unscientific as medicine, nothing
else may be expected. A proper dag
nosis is often made by the final results;
thus. in measels Osler says, ut may be
extremely difficult to distinguish from
rotheins l have more than once known
practitioners OF large experience unable
to agree upon a diagnosis. The shorter
prodromal stage, the slighter fever in
many cases, are perhaps the most i'm
portant features"
Reynolds System of Medicine says:
I'm case occurring some years ago in
Philadelphia two physicians of similar
experience saw the patient within an
hour of each other: one pronounced it
measels and the other scarlet fever.
When, however. after about three days
of indisposition, rash breaks out which
is military in form, but of nearly scar
let hue, attended with slight sore throat,
with or without disposition to cough,
and moderate fever, all of which symp-
toms subsde within week, leaving no
sequelae, and especially when a number
of such cases occur in the same neigh
borhood, exhibiting the same absence
of fever character. and are followed by
rapid convalescence, we may conclude
1t 10 be an epidemic of of rothein or
rubella."
Here, a diagnosis can be made only by
time and results. So, in many of the
common experiences of life outside of
the medical profession. How many
farmers can tell oats from wheat when
they first come up? Put fifty babies of
both sexes in a room with nothing on
but breech- elouts and call in these
X-ray-eyed diagnosticians to determine
which is boy and which is girl. When
they can diagnose the sexes Wilson
county will acknowledge that she has
neglected her duty.
Nothing can have a more deleterious
effect, morally, physically and sanitarily
upon q community than the doctor who
knows it all. Knowink that tn laity can
not decide between merit and Dretense,
he makes up for his ignorance in parade
and show. He puts on style, and to
quote Willis P. King, NJ. D., on Onacks
and Quackery, "Heis loud man. There
is nothing, If you will believe him, that
he does not know He makes a dag
nosis off hand and at long range, with
out having seen the case or even heard
much about it,
This Is the way much of the diagnosis
of Wilson county smallpox has been