The Washington herald., 1907-12-30
Value of Vaccination y

Editor The Washington Herald.
The Washington Herald Of Sunday.
December %, copied from the New Albany
Medical Herald. under the above caption.
the following:
The value Of revaccination is illus
trated in the comparative smallpox losses
of the French and German armies in
1870. The German field army. which num-
bered more than a million soldiers. al
though exposed 10 a raging smallpox
epidemic in France. lost bv death from
the disease 297 men; the French army
suffered the enormous loss Of Q. 469 men
from smallpox. Statistics show that the
German army was well vaccinated and
the French army poorly vaccinated.
In well-vaccinated countries the epl-
denies are of short duration. In com
tries, however, in which vaccination is
neglected the epidemics may attain in
extent and mortality the terrible num-
bers reached in the days before vacci-
nation.
During the epidemic in Philadelphia.
1sO1-O4. although $500 cases were ad-
nitted TO the hospitals. no person who
had been recently successfully vaccinated
was taken TO a hospital with smallpox"
Hon William E. Gladstone declared
that it was not 50 much the arguments
of the anti-veccinatiOnists that prevented
him from favoring a law 10 make il more
compulsory in England, as il was the
lying statistics Of the medical profess
sion.
The above "Fr1ncO-German war fable"
is splendid illustration OF the founda-
ton upon which many medical facts"
repOse,
There is not one word of truth in it.
and defy any man in the world to verify
II in public. One Of the first to dish
out this MUnchausen tale was an allo-
pathic physician. Sir Lyon PIayfair "a
bad name for him), Of London. On
June H. 1883, he triumphantly reproduced
the bogus 'Franco-German war statis-
tics with telling effect in the House of
Commons Mr. Alexander Wheeler chal-
lenged the statement as soon as uttered
and followed it up with q crushing ref,,-
tation of the whole story. He communi-
Gated with the French war office and re-
celved the assurance that there were no
ofhcial medical statistics taken out dur
ing the war with Germany In 1901.
Earl Granville, then in Paris reported
that the smallpox deaths in the French
army during lS70-n were unknown: that
the confusion at the time was too great
for registry"
In reply TO a letter OF inquiry as TO the
number Of deaths from SMALLPOX in the
German army during the war with
France. addressed 10 the war office of the
army medical department Of Germany
by Mr. G. s Gibbs, the following answer
was received in letter from the German
war Office. dated Berlin, July 30. 1889:
tor the time during July 1870 n
June lSl (the twelve-months' war) the
numbers wished for are not recorded
ana regret is expressed that on this ac
count the desired information cannot no
given "To1.TP rTSoT-t1r,
Dr. Carpenter. of London, was called
down for repeating these fake" statis-
tlcs, ana later retracted il in the London
Daily News Of August 1888.
That old canard has not improved in
its journey over this country. Whv do
our vaccination advocates have +o trot
out that old fraud which has been
nailed" in public so many times in the
old country?
Prof Charles Creighton. Of Cambridge
London, author Of Vaccination" in the
Encyclopedia Britannica" says. In nv
opinion, vaccination affords no protec-
ton whatever against smallpox"
Let US remember that in the davs ba
fore vaccination" the doctors spread
smallpox ali over the civilized world by
lnoeulaton, and when that was made