The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-02-20
Vagabond
from
Indiana
FEB. 20, 1886
ERNIE PYLE
NEWS. Va. Feb. 20.

=
NEWPORT NEWS, Va, Feb 20.
/ v in the past "a hours I have
become an authority on vaccination,
incubation, pain, misery, woe, grief,
aches. chills, fevers, ennui. nostalgia
and stiffness of the joints and
muscles. In other words, I hurt all
over
1t came about like this: Being
cautious young man. I had myself
vaccinated for smallpox few days,
ago. and at the same time startedsas
series of three typhoid serum irs
jections, to come week apart. ~
The first one wasn't so bad. NV
arm was pretty sore for one after
noon, and that was all. But the
second typhoid injection. On boy!
The doctor damned in the needle
for the second one here in New
port News. at 10 O'Clock in the
morning. BY noon my arm was
getting stiff. BY couldn't move
it. At I began to ache all over.
At my back started to break in
two. BY 6 my legs ached so
couldn't stand. BY z 1 had chillsl
and fevers. At 8 1 called in my be-
loved and said good-by. But She
had had shot too, and didn't seem
to care whether I was saying good
by or hello.
1t was a miserable night. Wild
dreams, and fevers. The weight of
the covers almost killed me. My
eyes pulled up, and my face was.
on fire. And my back, oh my poor
back! You've never heard of any
thing that hurt the way my back
hurt.
COMEHOW, morning finally came.
~ I couldn't get up, but I did sit
up and read. And I read. of all
things, a volume entitled "Triumphs
of Medicine" by H. S. Hartzog Jr.
CAS- a matter of fact, I brought the,
book along especially for this pur-
pose. knowing I would be laid up,
and figuring I might as we'll write
a piece about IT'D
Well. that's grand book. There's
stuff in it worth knowing. About
smallpox. for instance. Did YOU
know that before incubation be-
came known, smallpox killed 15-
100000 people every 25 years. and
that 10 of every 100 people who died,
died of smallpox?
The Chinese, as usual, were ahead
on incubation. They would take
smallpox germs, in powder form, and
blow them through silver tube up
persons nose. He would then have
smallpox. usually in mild form,
and if he survived he wouldn't catch
real smallpox.
EDWARD JENNER, the famous
- British country doctor, was the
man who substituted modern vacci-
nation for incubation, in 1796. no
incubation, you know, was by real
smallpox germs, taken from per-
son with the disease. Vaccination
is with germs that have passed
through some other natural process.
The difference in effect is this:
One of about 80 inoculated persons
died, and also the reaction" was
fully as contagious as natural small
pox. Vaccination kills hardly any,
body, and the reaction" is not con-
tagious.
Jenner got his idea from studying
milkmaids who contracted something
known as cowpox from milking
cows 1t turned out that cowpox
was smallpox had by COW.
By long experimenting, Jenner
discovered that you could give COW
smallpox, then take the germs and
give them to a human, and the hui
man would thereafter be immune.
There was opposition to vaccina-
ton (there still is, for that matter9c
One surgeon thought 1t would cor
rupt the mind. Somebody started
rumor that vaccinated women
would bear children resembling
calves.
But on the whole, vaccination
was readily accepted. Preachers in
England and Holland urged it on
their congregations. The Spanish
government in 1903 sent an ex-
vi d Jcd1 UP
around the world, just to spread
the gospel of vaccination. In Russia
the first child vaccinated was
named Vaccinoff, and educated by
the state, by decree of the Empress.
Vaccination started in this coun-
try about 1900. President Thomas
Jefferson had vaccine applied to a
hundred people.
u
r UNFORTUNATELY, my book has
~ very little to say about typhoid
injections. I don't know whether
the serum they shot into me comes
from an OK or a glowworm. But 1
do know that it's mighty. mighty
powerful, and that before they give
me the third and final shot, they'll
have to find me. And if they look
in Virginia, I'll be in North Caro-
lima And If they look in North