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

a case OF smallpox - very
The anti-vaccinatiOnists chief argu-
ment is that fact that. If vaccination is
performed without aseptic precau-
tions, there is danger of inoculating the
patient with the germs of other dis
eases-such, for instance, as lockjaw.
That this is true cannot be denied !;
but that such chance infections occur
very often is not likely. Vaccines are
now prepared and packed in a thor
oughly aseptic manner and all but a
small minority Of physicians make the
incubation carefully. To avoid all dan
ger of chance infection 1t is only neces-
sary to employ a competent physician.
The vaccine virus usually is prepared
at present by rubbing down scabs from
an inoculated calf In chemically pure
glycerine. The result is thick emul-
sion that keeps well and is easily In
troduced into the abrasion made upon
the arm. By another process, the ends
of ivory points are covered with the
virus which dries upon them These
points are rubbed into the wound.
In the laboratories wherein vaccine
virus is made commercially, elaborate
cleanliness is observed. Calves a year
or so old are selected. Skilled veterin-
arians make sure that they are abso-
lutely free from disease. The flank of
each animal is shaved and cleansed
with antiseptics. Lymph from an in
fected calf is introduced beneath the
skin. either with a syringe or by rub
bling 1t into long scratches. Within
week the whole flank of the animal is
covered with cowpox vesicles. The
fluid within these is the vaccine virus.
Ordinarily it is squeezed out with
forceps or scooped out with an appro-
PIRATE instrument and mixed with
rrTw 4fv,1 i
In g. cool place for six weeks or two
months, when 1t is ready for use
Glycerinated lymph retains its potency
for eight months or more. Besides
preserving the virus the glycerine has
the effect Of killing a number of other
common bacteria.
The lymph collected from a single
calf is sufficient TO inoculate from
1000 to 1900 human beings. AS the
animals attack of cowpox makes it
immune to the disease, in future, it can
be employed only once for the produc-
ton Of virus. While II is in service
the animal is usually protected against
lockjaw by the incubation of tetanus
antitoxin.
1t is important to repeat vaccination
when it does not take" Only when
the familiar swelling and malaise fail
to follow two or three NEGOTIATIONS, is
it safe to assume that the patient is
immune. That certain persons are nat
urally immune to smallpox, and that,
in consequence, vaccination. in their
case. never takes" is possible: but il
is unlikely that such persons are nu-
merOus. In fact, one investigator
found only one natural immune among
$4,000 patients.
A great many pathologists. in all
- i
smallpox germ, as has been said. So
far their work has been without re-
suit. Several observers have found a
minute paraSite-a parasite differs
from a bacillus in the fact that the
former is a true animal while the latter
is plant-in the pustules of smallpox
patients. but the relation of this para
site to the disease remains to be dem
Cnstrated.
Other observers have found that the
blood of persons recovering from small
pox has the power of making vaccine
virus inert, and in this fact lies a pos
sibility that a curative serum for
smallpox may be produced before long:
but so far it is only a possibility.
Meanwhile there is ground for con-
graduation in the fact that vaccina-
ton has robbed the disease of it's old
terrOrs and that epidemics, in civilized
countries, now are well nigh unknown.
Before vaccination was generally
practiced. smallpox was a frightful
scOurge. During the eighteenth CEN
fury one-third of all the inhabitants of
England were pock-marked. In one
year, during the early part of that cen
fury one fourteenth of the English
people died of the malady. In Japan,
before the country was opened to civ
lH-yaF -
100000 deaths to be recorded in a sin
gle year. Today, the Jaranese doctors
have it well in hand, and except in the
seapOrts it is practically unknown
The disease is thought to have orig
mated in the far east shortly before
the beginning of the Christian era. 1t
was introduced into Europe by a Ro-
man army returning from an Asian
campaign. The first treatise on small
pOx that we know today was written
by MariuS, a Swiss saVant in the year
$40 A. d. Soon after that it became
epidemic in France and devastated the
kingdom of TOuraine. 1t also spread
along the Mediterranean and the Arab
physicians Of the time-who were a
great deal more expert than their white
brothers-made elaborate studies of it.
By the time of the Crusades it was
the king scourge of Europe, and ac-
cording to one historian. ii sometimes
caused q million deaths in a single
year.
The Spaniards brought smallpox to
the new world in 1907. Two years later
il killed 100000 Of the aboriginal in
habitants Of Mexico. The Indians of
what is now the United States also fell
in multitudes. The epidemic spread to
Alaska and thence into Siberia. It did
rot reach the Hawaiian islands until
1885; but within a year after that it
had laid low s per cent of the people.
So far the strict British quarantine
has served to prevent an epidemic in
Australia; and in view of the extern
sive vaccination practiced there it is
probable that the island continent new
er will suffer greatly from the malady.
When Jenner introduced vaccination
IL was opposed On the ground that the
virus from calves would make those
who were vaccinated below like cat
tie. The theologians of the time also
combated him on the ground that
smallpox was a punishment laid on the
human race for it's admitted sins. and
that any effect to escape il was an
insult to the deity. Happily for man
kind, such a view of things is no longer
held by civilized white men.