The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-08

reputation. Each contributor stands
Nigh in his field Professional ethics
,iprohibit them from attaching their
names; but every statement is made
with the highest authority.
1t is just 210 years since Edward
Jenner, the great English physician,
vaccinated James Phipps, his first pa
tient. During that long period, &C
cording to reliable statisticians, more
than four billion Of human beings
have been vaccinated.
When Jenner scraped the arm of the
immortal Phipps. smallpox was the
king scourge of humanity. Every year
more than $50, 600 persons died from it
in Europe alone. Today 1t Is grow
ing rarer and rarer among oil the
civilized races of the earth. and in
some countries IL has disappeared al
most entirely. Arm scraping alone is
TO be thanked for this.
The gentlemen learned in pathology
know a great deal less about small
pox than they know about most other
infectious diseases. For one thing
they have been unable, as yet, to find
the germ that causes it. Various mi
mute bodies have been discovered in
the blood and tissues of smallpox pa
of partisans. who produce a great
show of evidence that it, and it alone,
produces the disease. But here is a
unanimous lack OF unanimitY among
the experts. Their various theories
still remain to be demonstrated and &C
cepted.
Despite these lamentable differences
there Is one point on which all the
doctors agree. IT is this: When man
L, &c ph % n
getting IL again are enthusiastically
small In other words, the disease
leaves almost perfect immunity behind
It: and he who bears its scars may
laugh at II for the rest OF his life.
This immunity follows very mild at
tack Just as certainly as 1t follows a
severe attack. On that fact is based
the theory of vaccination.
Jenner was not the inventor Of in
oculation. Five hundred years ago the
people of the Levant practised IT with
success. Long experience had taught
them that if smallpox were acquired
by bringing the scabs of patients into
contact with the skin, 1t usually APP
peared in a comparatively mild form.
Therefore they immunized themselves
in this manner; by direct incubation
from human subjects
But this method was open 20 several
very grave objections. In the first
place, it happened sometimes that
person thus inoculated, instead of de-
veloping a mild attack Of smallpox,
developed it i'm a virulent form and
died from it. In the second place, pa
tients thus inoculated. even when they
themselves got well quickly and easily,
frequently gave rise TO the disease in
viTulent and fatal forms in those
around them.
Thus the problem before Jenner was
To evolve a method of incubation that
would invariably produce a mild form
of the disease and to keep thoss who
had been inoculated from transmittig
It. in worse forms, 10 others. He
solved his problem by abandoning the
use of scabs from human patients and
by employing in their places Scabs from
cows suffering from cowpoX
Jenner died believing that cOwpOX
and smallpox were separate and dis
tinct diseases. Modern pathology has
proved that they are one. The differ
ence between their symptoms and eff
fects is due TO the fact that cattle pos
sess a certain measure of natural I'M
munity to the smallpox germ and that
when il is introduced into their bodies
IT is strenuously fought and materially
debilitated.
Thus If a healthy calf is inoculataG
with virus from a man DIVING from
smallpox. the calf itself docs not die,
but battles with the germs and even
tuaIly throws them off. Now, if some
of these germs are taken from sclb
on this calf and introduced into the
body of another calf. the latter COM
bats them still more vigorously anu
successfully, and they grow still more
debilitated After a number of such
transmissiOns. they lose their original
virulence almost entirely. Then, if
they are introduced into the body of q
human being. they viii give him, not
the horrible and fatal disease we call
smallpox. but the mild and easily
cured malady we call cOwpOX.
At bottom smallpox and cOwDox are
identical. The only difference be-
tween them is that the former is dam
gerous, while the latter is not.
There are many proofs of this; but
most of them involve 50 many technt-
calities that they cannot be discussed
here. The one that best appeals to
laymen is the fact that cowpox leaves
behind it immunity which is almost
as effective bar to smallpox as an
attack Of smallpox itself. Experience
shows that the immunity produced by
any disease applies to that disease
alone. In other words, it is against all
experience that one malady should pro-
tect a patient against some other NAL
ady Therefore, Psychologists conclude
that smallpox and cOwpOX are one.
When you are vaccinated, couple
of hundred thousand weak and debili-
tated smallpox germs. from some calf
whose blood has fought them, are
introduced into your body. At the
Ila,e CT er-rance pms .IIia forms. and
for Sc eral days you feel III. Later on
you recover entirely. After that. even
if virulent smallpox germs are intro
duced into your body. you do not take
the disease. In a word. you have had
cowpox and it has made you immune
10 it's other self. smallpox.
1t is a mistake, however. 10 suppose
that this immunity lasts forever-that
one vaccination is enough for life
time. As a matter Of fact. the effect
gradually wears off; and all the au-
thorities agree that every one should
be revaccinated every ten years or so.
In Germany this idea is embodied in
the imperial vaccination law. Every
German child must be vaccinated dur
ing the calendar year of its birth and
again at the age OF y years. In addi-
ton. whenever a case Of smallpox ap-
pears, every person in the area of pos