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

mated as were those Of Prussia, but all
were vastly better vaccinated than the
French.
Since 1874 a much more rigid vaccina-
ton law has been in force in Germany.
Vaccination OF all infants is made COM
pulsory with revaccination of all at
school age. The mean death rate from
smallpox per million before this law was
500. Since the law was passed it has
been Is; during the last ten years, :.
In the army in which the vaccination law
is most rigidly enforced, there has been
but one death from smallpox since 1874
The general rate has not raised mate
rally since that year. The cases that
have occurred have been largely upon
the frontier and among foreigners.
These figures from Prussia have given
the antivaccinationists much perturta-
tion OF spirit. They have been able to
get around them only by actual untruth.
in asserting that the law of 1885 was a
compulsory vaccination law. That law
urgently recommended vaccination but
did not make it compulsory. Such a law
was passed only in 1874. The antivacci-
nationists have tried to explain the di-
minished death rate here, as in Sweden,
upon the ground of improved sanitation.
The argument is absurd. There was no
sudden Improvement in sanitary cOndi-
lions in either country, and Prussia and
Sweden are not more sanitary than
ether countries where there has been no
such radical change either in the occur
renee or the mortality of smallpox.
In Austria vaccination is not compul-
sorry, and there we find some striking
facts Of different character. During the
/ years in which the death rate from
smallpox in Prussia was seven, in Austria
it was 45S. In Belgium, another country
in which vaccination is not compulsory,
the death rate per million from 1875 to
1851 was al. when Prussia's was %. Are
we to infer that Prussia is just twenty
times more sanitary than Belgium? In
the year 1885,, the death rate from small
pox of Switzerland was ffty-fourfold that
of Germany; that OF Germany forty-eight
fold: that of Belgium forty-eightfold;
Austria, eighty-onefold. and Hungary,
six hundred and sevenfold.
In Italy registration of causes of death
was initiated in 1881. A compulsory law
Of vaccination in infancy and reyacci-
ration of all the children attending pub
lie schools was instituted in 1888. The
smallpox deaths per 100000 inhabitants
from 1881 to 1890 averaged 35,5, being,
during but two years, below 20. From
1891 to 1894 the average was 6.5.
In the four capitals of Europe, in the
ten years from 1877 to 1886, the smallpox
deaths per 100, 900 living were as follows:
Vienna, 81; Paris, %; London, %; Ber-
lin, /.
In several localities in England a
strong characterization sentiment had
arisen, and by the irony of fate these
towns furnish some very wholesome les
sons. In the Sheffield epidemic of 1887
IS, We have the following statistics given
by the Practitioner:
Attack rate per 900 in the nOn-vac-
cinated, "a; death rate, 81.
Attack rate per 900 in the once vac
cinated, 10; death rate, 1.
Attack rate per 1000 in the revacci-
mated, 3; death rate, O.08.
One in 800 of the vaccinated died; one
il twenty of the unvaccinated.
In Gloucester the antivac cination SEN
timent had been particularly strong, and
in the epidemic of 1896 there were
1879 cases and 439 deaths in a popula-
ton of a., 0G0. Strenuous attempts were
made to stay the epidemic by means of
hospitals, disinfection and quarantining
without the slightest effect. 1t ragged
unchecked until officials, who had pub
Ecly and boastingly declared themselves
opposed to vaccination, became panic
stricken and, turning directly about, be-
gan to enforce the vaccination laws. The
epidemic was then rapidly quelled.
Statistics derived from armies are of
particular value, for there is no chance
for the cOncealment of cases which fire.
quently occurs in civil life. Every case
Of disease as we'll as every death is
known. Beginning with 1874, the aver
age annual death rate per 100, 600 strength
in various armies was as follows: French
army for eight years, Is; Austrian army
for SIX years, %; British army for TWEEN
ty-two years, 81; Prussian army. 1 soil
tary death from 1874 to 1896. | have not
been able to obtain the statistics since
that year. AS already, stated, vaccina-
ton is more thoroughly carried out in the
Prussian army than among any other
body Of men, the British army standing
next.
Smallpox hospitals also furnish their
evidence of the efficacy of vaccination.
DIR. William M. WEIGH, in an experience
Of twenty-five years as physician to the
Municipal Hospital Of Philadelphia, re-
ports that no physician, nurse, or en-
ploye Of that institution, vaccinated be-
fore beginning duty, ever contracted
smallpox. DR.. arsden, physician to the
London Smallpox Hospital, said: In
thirty-fve years have never had a
IhI ~ vi SS1 '+IiN ~ ~
cinate them when they come here" In
his classic article based upon observa-
tions made upon 1882 patients, he reports
a mortality of 50. So per cent in patients
never vaccinated and 5.25 in those who
had been vaccinated and showed a scar.
Among those alleged to have been vac
cinatcd but showing no scar 21.73 per
cent died. OF all the patients who had
been vaccinated with and without a scar,
the operation had been done before five
years of age in 80 per cent. He reports
A. second attacks of smallpox.
DR.. Collie says that during the cpl
donnie of 1871, out of 10 smallpox attend
ants at Homerton, all but two We're re-
vaccinated and these two alone took
smallpox. MacNail collected statistics of
1900 smallpox attendants, 43 of whom
had smallpox, but not one of the 43 had
been revaccirated. DR.. Bracken, of Min
neapOlis, has this year reported 662 cases