Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1903-06-13
DR.. Z. y. DIRICkSON
Makes an Address on the Commercial
Value of Thorough Vaccination.

In discussing compulsory vaccina-
ton law two aspects of the subject pre-
sent themselves for consideration: First,
the necessity for such an enactment,
Secondly, the constitutional power of
the Legislative body to enact one.
In regard to the necessity of such a
law there can be little doubt, not only
from hygienic point of view. but from
the purely economic one of public
economy.
The State of Maryland through its
several boards of health. representing
State. County. and Municipal authority,
has extraordinary police power in pre-
venting the introduction and spread of
contagious and infectious diseases, and
has voluntarily, by virtue of certain
laws. assumed the entire control of in.
fected persons and localities. The right
to quarantine and sequestrate is un-
disputed, but we must bear i'll mind
that when the state or counties exercise
these privileges and perogatives she
does so at the public expense. for the
persons so quarantined become, at once,
a burden to the state. and rich or poor
are entitled to the maintenance neces-
sary for their well being. Now. in many
instances. these charges have been
heavy and Onerous. and, i'll the aggre-
gate, far exceed the calculations of
those best informed upon this subject.
From some statistics hurridly gathered
from the several counties through the
state, that have been so unfortunate as
to have been infested with smallpox,
find that quite large sum has been
spent in fighting this disease; i'll fact,
many times the amount necessary to
have been spent in procuring by COM
plete vaccination very great degree of
immunity.
During the past three years. including
the present to this date, smallpox,
occurring in eleven of the counties in
the state. has cost those counties in the
aggregate $40, 1879 "a. about 20 dollars
for each case, not including the cost of
vaccination. In some instances the
cost has been enormous, exceeding 5000
for each case. as in Washington county.
for instance, where it cost 5000 TO bury
and fumigate after two cases. Let us
suppose, for an instant, that the NOR
tality had been very great At this rate
the total amount would have become
appalling.
1t is reasonable to suppose that the
above memorandum hardly represents
even small fraction. either of the
number of cases. or of the expenditure
incurred, and l do not think it is an ex-
aggeration t. estimate that at least
$4,000 have been paid during the
past three years by the several counties
and Baltimore City in controlling small
pox epidemics and infections. OF course
this sum, large as it may seem, sinks in
to insignificance when we compare it
with the million dollars spent by
Chicago but few year ago, or the six
hundred thousand spent by Boston dur
ing one outbreak quite recently or of the
many other large sums paid out by
other states and cities But it is entire
ly too much when we take into consid-
Grafton the fact that had there been COM
plete and thorough vaccination (which
would not have cost one tenth of this
amount), there would in all probability.
not have been any smallpox.
l shall not for a moment enter into
any discussion about the efficiency of
vaccination. that time has passed away
many. many years ago, and we know
that we have most certain and positive
way of establishing comparative i'm
munity. Yes l might say complete im
munity from disease that has been
scourage to mankind for thousands of
years, and has claimed more victims
than any other epidemic disease known
to science.
When we turn the musty pages of the
past we find many instances when en-
tire towns, cities communities, and
countries have been desolated, the
living not being sufficient to bury the
dead, trade and commerce paralysed,
abandoned ships rotting in deserted
harbors, the public roads and highways
strewn with the dead and dying, of
towns and villages being given to the
flames that they might be purified;
when the king and queen on their
thrones, the lord i'll his palace. and the
peasant in his hovel. were alike stricken
down. From all parts of the world
went forth the cry of death aud desola-
ton, from the teeming plains of India.
where countless millions knelt and
sacrificed to there smallpox goddess,
"Mastia," to the frozen mountains of
Iceland swept desolate IN the thirteenth
century by this terrible scourage. When
we compare those records of the past
with the present, even as bad as it is,
there can be no reasonable argument
against vaccination. Prior to the dis
covery of Jenner the mortality from
smallpox in England, then as now, in
the first ranks in all sanitary work,