The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-01-26

\ A large majority of the cases of small
box occur at the present time 1S65) after
vaccination. Thirty years since, from
1885 to 1S45, the admissions OF patients
into the SMALLPOX Hospital were A per
cent after vaccination; from lS4o TO 1900,
"a per cent: from 1855 to 1865, rs per cent;
and during the last two years lS63-4)
SO and "a per cent, respectively. 1t Will,
therefore, be seen that they are gradual
ly increasing in numbers; and, now that
vaccination has been made by law com
pulsory in England, the percentage of
cases of smallpox after vaccination will
no doubt go on increasing, until it will
be rather a rare circumstance to see
+ smallpox in the unvaccinated. at least
in the adult. Unfortunately, the number
of admissions into the hospital keeps
also increasing
| Now, there can be no doubt that what
has been observed for the last thirty
years at the SMALLPOX Hospital, Lon
don, in relation to the occurrence of
smallpox after vaccination, has been go
ing on in much the same way. all over
the country, wherever smallpox has pre-
vailed.
With this array of facts against the
/
even to curtail any outbreak of small
pox am surprised that man of DR.,
Lewis intelligence should intimate even,
much less assert. as he did in his an
swer to my first article that, by means
of vaccination and the care of three
cases, the disease was stamped out in
Wilson county from the spring of 1899
to that of 1901. The truth of it is, the
pest never has stopped in our county
from its first Importation from Edge
combe. But our authorities, after pay
\ ing out S6S1.55 for vaccinating the bulk
of which went to that part of the pro-
fession who pronounced it smallpox, and
$9614 for drugs, got tired of the ex-
pense. (seeing no good from it,, and cut
off the rations. And between the pub
lie, whom l am addressing and myself
to go no further, this RATION business
is one of the principal causes why we
have smallpox in our county today.
Another question l would like to ask
DR.. Lewis: If it was stamped out for
two years by 1.-The vaccination of nearly
everybody in the town of Wilson and
a number in the county," how did it
get back here? 1t certainly has nothing
to feed on, unless it feeds upon the vac
cinated.
This protection by vaccination has done
one poor woman more harm than all
the smallpox has done all the men and
women who have had it in the last three
years in our town. 1t has ruined her
She As cripple and will be a pauper upon
our county so long as she lives unless
she can be cured. She was vaccinated in
February. 1899. The sore on her arm,
1
/ 81 by SIS inches, and her elbow joint
is partially anchylosed. wish every adj
vocate of vaccination in North Carolina
could see it.
The miserable part of all this vacci.
nation business. according to those who
have made it study, is, that. as being
done today it is not only no protection
against contracting smallpox, but it is
not protection to life after having con-
tracted the disease.
Mr.. ]. F. Marson, physician to the
SMALLPOX Hospital, London, for thirty
years, and a very strong advocate for
vaccination says; THE great mis-
fortune was that the public were taught
to believe that the operation was so
simple, and required so little knowledge
and care. that anybody might perform
it. Had certificates, fortunately, of hav-
ing received instruction in vaccination
been required of students at the examin
/ ing boards, as they ought to have been,
| forty or fifty years ago, hundreds of per-
sons who have died and thousands still
living who have been badly vaccinated,
and will still die of smallpox after vac
cination. might have been saved Those
| uh TO tn baV
been vaccinated in four or more places
with lymph that leaves good, easily per-
ceptible ccatrices. have almost invaria
bly, slight form of smallpox when it
occurs; but those who have only one or
two marks from vaccination will proba-
bly, have a severe form of the disease.
The security of vaccinated persons will
depend not only upon the number of ci-
catrices produced at vaccination, but also
upon the quality of the cicatrices."
And DR.. Seaton, another writer on vac
cination, says: THE question is not
whether the patient has been vaccinated
or not. but also how he has been vac
cinated. Nor, relying as We must do
upon them is it too much to affirm that
no practitioner will have done his duty
in any case in which he is called upon
to vaccinate, unless, besides all requisite
precautions with regard to the genuine
ness of the lymph employed and the
means of insuring success, he has also
taken care to vaccinate sufficiently that
is, to produce, so far as in him lies four
or five genuine good-sized vesicles, such
as result from separate punctures."
Now, how do they vaccinate here? One
little puncture to get as small a sore as
possible, but unfortunately, in many
cases. not only a big, but an unbeatable