The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-12-16

the vaccinist: Vaccination is com
 pulsory during the first six months,
 again at six years, yet again at four
 teen, and then during every epidemic.
 For males there is an additional inoc- , lllation upon entering military service. Surgeon General Takakf wrote
 Smallpox, once the scourge of the Is- | land, is now all but unknown" And yet between 1889 and 1909 there
 were, in Japan, 171, 300 cases of small | DO; an average of $500 year with
 48,000 deaths-a mortality of 28 per | cent
 In 1908, when the fruits of it's rigor- ous vaccination laws should have been | harvested, there were 18,00o cases with 1 5000 deaths-a mortality of g per cent. Verify, there are none so blind as 1 those who will not see!
 Still we believe that vaccination pre- vents smallpox :
 And these statistics all from official
 government sources, mark you. 1 Now, our pro-vaccination friends, ex-
 uding superior wisdom, with arms akimbo, and heels planted firmly, in- quire eff vaccination doesn't prevent
 smallpox, why don't we have the de-
 vastating epidernics which used to
 sweep the world? Why is smallpox
 almost unknown in Germany where vaccination is practised universally,
 and why is 1t so rife amongst the ig- l II
 Pennsylvania, where they are only oc- | casionaliy vaccinated, and then under 1 cOmpulsion?' ?''
 l One of the most interesting varieties
 of obscession to which humanity is
 subject, is that peculiar state of mind
 which insists that smallpox, of all the epidemic diseases which are dfsap-
 bearing with the evolution of the Race, | is hors du combat because of our strenuous efforts to vaccinate human- ity-and keep 1t vaccinated.
 They totally ignore the fact that the
 frightful bubonic plague, which period
 ically overran Europe, causing mill lions of deaths, is practically unknown l in the Occident.
 They neglect to remember that ty- phoid, typhus, cholera and those great
 epidemics of scarlet fever, measles, and
 cholera-infantum which formerly dec-
 imated our population are now rarely
 seen; or when epidemic, as during the l recent visitation of typhoid in Torring- | ton, Connecticut, results in concert ed c,amor for the hearts blood of
 those officials who neglect to maintain the purity of the source of water SUD- ply.
 We know, and frankly admit, that our comparative freedom from disease | is due to intelligent methods of sewage disposal; the perfection of our open l work plumbing; the care which moth- ' ! milk and maintaining sterile condi- | ton of nipples and bottles; segrega- | tiOn of all contagious diseases, and l the legal enforcement of dis1nfect1ng i measures; our examination of immi- grants for evidences of physical de- generacy and infectious diseases; vigi- | lant solicitude for the purity of our water, milk and food supply ;and in di- vers other ways advantaging ourselves Of the discoveries of modern science relative to the murderous activities of our hereditary enem1es-germs and All this is known. Even the most rabid vaccinist will admit that the de- crease in mortality from these causes IS because we have learned the value of sanitation.
 In smallpox, however, they insist that vaccination per SC is the only credit factor
 Germany has no smallpox to speak of. Neither has 1t any open sewers | running through the middle, of it's methods of garbage and night-soil dis posal of old Japan. The Japanese are just as ardent as the Germans in regard to vaccination more so, in fact,-yet they have ap-- proximately 1S,000 cases year and 5000 deaths.
 The mill and mining districts in wes- tern Pennsylvania, which have heter- ogenous population of Slavs, Polacks,
 Huns, Italians, Russians, and south of Europe immfgrants-working and liv-
 Eng if conditions which beggar des- cription-which no normal animal ex- cept a hog could tolerate-are period ically swept by epidemics of smallpox which overwhelm, the hove1-dwellers, and run a mortality up into the hun dreds. And this in spite of the most
 rigorous compulsory vaccination. Go xTyn hou Smallpox is filth disease. Unless the filth is cleaned up. and proper
 disposal of. sewage and garbage main ] tained, vaccination will not prevent l 1t. If it is-it will. Or we will be equally immune with or without vac l For know that the defensive proteid within the blood is the Metchnikoff phagocyte-or white leuccocyte. These sturdy little soldiers turk in wait for pathogenic (disease-producing) germs, which they promptly seize and turn proceed to digest. Many millions of phagocytes however, are overcome by I the invaders, and other hosts desist l from surfeit. They are satiated by. | plethora. And unless their activity 1 is stimulated by some opsonic agent tsome appefzer), they remain lethar- 1 g:c.
 This is precisely what happens when vaccine pus \ is introduced into the system. Varioloid is developed, and
 millions of defenders are killed in overcoming it. Other millions are ren- dered impotent from overlooking. They acquire a condition of fatty degenera- | tion of the ego, and lose all ambi- | tion.
 1 If the patient is now exposed to actual contagion, his vitality is so re- duced, hts physiological resistance which depended upon the number and activity of his phagocytes-so weak ened, that he falls an easy victim to the disease, and is infinitely less fit 1 ted to overcome 1t.
 If the system is kept at par, and | cleanly habits of living observed, | there need be no apprehension. of con- tracting smallpox-or anything else. If, however, the patient is poisoned l with vaccine pus, and exposed to | smallpox infection while in a deIibitat- ed condition, there is a splendid chance that he will contract the disease,-and perhaps die of it.
 Among a dozen such cases there is one which 2ands out vividly,-a strong vigorous man of fifty-six. He alone, of family of eight or ten, equally exposed to the infection, per-
 mitted himself to be vaccinated. It
 was only through the hardest kind of work that his arm was saved from amputation. Long before the ulcer healed, he was stricken down with
 smallpox, and almost lost his life. Of course he was segregated in his