The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-03-02
THE ATTILA OF DISEASES
A Century of Vaccination, by Floyd
M. Craudal, M. D.
INTRODUCED INTO SOUTH BY JEFFERSON
When Jenner Performed His First Vaccination
inl796, Small Pox Was Cousing One
Tenth Of All The Deaths Of
the Human Race.

TO the Editor: AS smallpox and it's
prevention is and will doubtless remain
for some time a very live" question,
and as the objection to the only relia-
bic prevention arises nearly always from
ignorance, | send you very interesting
and valuable article on vaccination and
an eloquent little table of statistics
both from American Medicine, one of the
leading medical journals ofthe country.
RICHARD Fl. LEWIS,
Secretary State Board of Health.
ca Century of Vaccination, by Floyd M.
Crandal. NJ. D., of New York CityD
A hundred years remove from smallpox
and its horrors has rendered the people
more or less ignorant and consequently
indifferent. During the past year vacci-
nation was extensively performed in New
York. ! was amazed to find among my
private patients alone fourteen who had
never been vaccinat ed. Most of these had
come more or less recently from villages
or country localities, which led me to in
fer that vaccination outside the larger
cities has in recent years been much
neglected.
1t is we'll to state as definitely as pos
sible what is to be expected from vac
cination, for there is much popular mis-
apprehension upon this point. For this
purpose we cannot do better than to
quote the words of Jenner, whose claims
for vaccination, though always positive,
were judicious and by no means eXtrava-
CANT. His own words were: duly and
efficiently performed it will protect the
constitution from subsequent attacks of
smallpox as much as that disease itself
will. / never expected that it would do
more, and it will not. believe. do less"
Shortly before his death he said: my
opinion of vaccination is precisely as II
was when | first promulgated the dscov-
ery''
1t is thus seen that no exaggerated
claim was made by 'Jenner, nor has it
been made by any judicious physician.
Vaccination is not expected to protect
from smallpox more than will the disease
itself. Any Infectious disease is occas
ionaly repeated in the same individual.
In smallpox second attacks are not very
uncommon. Marson saw AZ second at
tacks among 1882 smallpox patients.
Haeser states that in Verona "a cases of
second attacks were observed within ten
years, and Helm reports 81 cases, occur
ring in Wurtemberg between 1881 and
1895. This means that the period of i'm
munity is not always lifelong. limited
period of immunity is common to several
of the infectious diseases. In diphtherla,
for instance, immunity continues but
few weeks. In smallpox, while in some
cases it is lifelong in others it is linn
tied. 1t is to be expected, therefore,
nation may have it's limits and it is not
u valid argument against the procedure
that it must be performed more than
once.
Jenner studied the subject with which
his name is so intimately associated with
the nlinutest care and was master of
it in all its details. His ideas were
clear and well defined and the system
was complete when it was given to the
world. Upon one essential point only was
he in error. He believed that yaccina-
ton thoroughly and properly performed
would insure immunity for life This
was not unnatural, for he saw absolute
immunity conferred by the operation and
it required many years of observation to
demonstrate that such immunity might
not be perpetuated during the life of the
individual.
The first vaccination of human sub
iect was performed by Edward Jenner on
Nav II, 1896. He had long. been study
ing the question, which had been called
to his attention by the fact that the milk
maids of certain districts of England
rarely contracted smallpox. 1t was u
matter of popular though local observa-
ton tina: the immune persons who had
not had smallpox had been inoculated by
cowpox. Little James Phpps was the
first subject. His vaccination ran a typi-
cal course and six weeks later second
vaccinations /as Jenner had confidently
predicted, produced not the slightest eff
feet After other unsuccessful trials, the
boy was taken through a smallpox hos
F.. pital without the slightest HARM as we
of the present day can readily believe.
Two years later Jenner published his
observations in little book of rs pages.
entitled IAN Inquiry into the Cause and
Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, a Dis
ease Discovered in Some of the Western
Countries of England, Particularly Glou-
cestershirc, and Known by the Name of
the Cowpox." The Importance of thus
little volume, and it's epochmaking char
acter, is proof that the reputation of an
author or scientist rests not upon how
much, but upon how good his work is.
From the publication of this little book
the adoption of vaccination was very
rapid, and it soon spread over the civ
ilized world. Its enemies, to be sure,
were many and venomous. The system
was opposed by many physicians, and
was denounced from many pulpits with
great bitterness, as an attempt to bes-
tialiZe the race. It. however, made
Roadway in spite of all opposition. The
first vaccination in America was per-
formed in Boston on July g. 1900, by DR..
Benjamin Waterhouse, Professor of Prac-
Q tice Of Physics at Harvard. He vacci-
mated seven of his own children, six OF
the vaccinations being successful. Short
ly afterward three of the children were
sent to the smallpox hospital and one
was inoculated with smallpox. None OF
the three, 1t is needless to say, contract